This post contains affiliate links, meaning if you click through and make a purchase, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. If you enjoy the content on Hella Basque, please consider supporting.

I fell down a rabbit hole on the internet this week.

You know when you search for one thing and then end up spending hours clicking link after related link?

That’s what I’ve been doing with Basque sheepherding videos.

I love learning about my Basque heritage but especially when it comes to Basques in the United States. And for a lot of our family histories, that means tracing our roots back to Basque sheepherders in the West.

My uncle spent about 9 years sheepherding in Montana when he first came to this country. Aita, his brother, only lasted 7 and a half months as a sheepherder in Montana before he decided that life was most definitely not for him and moved to San Francisco.

I asked Aita about the loneliness of sheepherding, because that’s what most of the articles and interviews with sheepherders I’ve come across describe. An overwhelming loneliness due to being in the big open country with nothing but your sheep and your sheepdog.

“You hear once in a while one plane going and that’s all,” Aita said. “Then the rest is green plants, sheep and cow and that’s it. I had compañero, we were two, we didn’t get along together all the time. He was 56 years old, he was there since 17 years old. He was from Arnegi. All his life he worked then he retired and he went back to France.”

This was the first I’d heard anyone mention that sometimes sheepherders weren’t totally alone on the job. But I can imagine being stuck in the middle of nowhere with someone you didn’t get along with was no picnic either!

RECOMMENDED Go Back in Time with this Documentary on the Basque Country by Orson Welles

I asked Aita what else I should tell Hella Basque’s readers about sheepherding. He went back to his default story, the one he always tells when asked about life as a sheepherder:

The cold.

Aita arrived in Montana on January 1, 1968, right in the middle of winter. The first day Aita started working, it was 32 below zero (Fahrenheit). Aita says his brother experienced 45 below zero temperatures during his time as a sheepherder.

What a miserable time it must have been out there on the mountain in such extreme cold!

Whenever Aita starts talking about his time as a sheepherder, he laughs about how he didn’t even complete his first contract. He was supposed to stay on the job for 1 year, he only lasted 7 and a half months.

I don’t blame him one bit though. It was lonely and challenging work, not so much in the scope of day-to-day tasks but in the mental fortitude necessary to stick with it.

But it’s one thing to read about Basque sheepherders’ experiences and it’s another thing entirely to SEE it.

To see the desolate mountain where these young immigrants lived with their sheep.

To see these Basque sheepherders themselves as they describe their experience in interviews.

I realize not everyone has the opportunity to talk to former sheepherders about their first years in the United States, which is why I’m sharing with you today the videos I’ve been watching online on this very topic.

So you can see Basque sheepherders talk about their lives and see the very country they worked in.

If you’re inclined to join me down this rabbit hole and hopefully learn a thing or two in the process, here are some of the videos that are available for free online:

 

Alone on the Range: Basques in Wyoming

By Wyoming State Parks & Cultural Resources.

A 12-minute feature following a couple of former Basque sheepherders on a trip to see their old stomping grounds in Wyoming.

 

Artzainak: Shepherds and Sheep

By Jacob Griswold and Javi Zubizaretta. University of Notre Dame 2009 Student Film Festival.

A 15-minute short film about sheepherding, featuring interviews with former Basque sheepherders and current-day South American sheepherders.

Tracks of an Old Frontier Shepherd Life: Great Basin Basques

By Kirsten Dirksen.

A 25-minute film about Basque sheepherders in Idaho and the thriving Basque community around Boise today.

 

Sheepherders’ Memories

By the Basque Educational Organization. Posted on YouTube by JP Biarritz.

An hour-long film full of interviews with former Basque sheepherders now based in California.

 

The Basque Sheepherder

Produced by Yould/Weld Film Productions. Posted on YouTube by JP Biarritz.

A 90-minute film following the journey of one Basque sheepherder from his home town in Narbarniz, Bizkaia to the United States. Filmed in the 1970’s.

 

Basque Sheepherder Aspen Carvings

By KNBP.

A 5-minute compilation of different aspen tree carvings in Nevada. Basque sheepherders used to carve their names, dates, and artwork in aspen trees, and many are still visible today if you know where to look for them.

 

1940’s Sheep Wagon Video

Courtesy of Silva family, Shoshone ID. Posted on Facebook by Korky Oneida.

A minute and a half compilation of silent clips from the 1940’s of Basque sheepherders at work.

Watch it on Facebook.

Happy viewing!

 

CONTINUE READING:

• 9 Movies Filmed in the Basque Country
• 3 Basque Restaurants Featured on The Food Network
• Basques Are Unique: It’s In Our Blood