Beltran, Basque Sheepman of the American West (Basque

by Beltran Paris, William A. Douglass (Designer)

In 1912, at the age of 23, Beltran Paris crossed the United States by train after sailing to New York from Paris. A cardboard sign on his beret announced his destination-"Gillette, Wyoming." In many respects Beltran's life was a microcosm of the Basque experience in the American West.. . . he had spoken only one Basque dialect and had never traveled more than a short distance from his birthplace in a small, border town in the French Basque country. He followed four cousins, all of whom were sheepherders in Wyoming. His original intent was to save 10,000 francs then return to his hometown to Basse Navarre, but after Beltran decided to make his home in the United States, and after he started to expand his business operations, he was compelled to learn English, a language which bore almost no structural resemblance to his native tongue. The challenges of learning a new language faced by Basques like Beltran mirror those faced by waves of non-Basque immigrants. However, there are important linguistic considerations, complicated by historical and political developments, which make the Basque experience in the American West noteworthy and which help to explain some unique aspects of the assimilation process in the Basque community. . . .One primary consideration is the uniqueness of Euskara, . . . , which is unrelated to other language groups. . . .A third factor has to do with the kind of economic opportunities available to early Basques in the western United States. . . It is a language family unto itself, unrelated to the Indo-European language group that includes the Romance, Slavic, and Germanic languages, including English. Translating the Culture Exerpt from by Linda White, Assistant Coordinator Basque Studies Program, University of Nevada-Reno and Thomas McClanahan, Ph.D., President Idaho Humanities Council

186 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1979