The first Basques to Oregon arrived in the late 1880s. These Euskaldunak, or newcomers, usually migrated north and east from Nevada and California, often as sheepherders, and settled in the southeast corner of the state. The number of Basques continued to expand in eastern Oregon into the 1920s and 1930s, especially in the Jordan Valley, Steens Mountain, and Ontario areas, but from 1940 on the influx of immigrant Basques rapidly declined. By the end of the twentieth century, the Basque presence in Oregon had notably shifted, with the largest concentrations now living outside the eastern parts of the state and in or near western urban areas such as Portland. Early on known primarily as sheepherders and livestock men, many Basques later moved into other occupations, even while others remained farmers or ranchers. Over the past century, the Amerikanuak (American Basques) established their identity as a notable part of Oregon's sociocultural mosaic.

The pioneering Basques in Oregon came from two launching areas. Some were part of the Euskaldunak exodus out of Gold Rush California and the first ranches of Nevada. Others arrived directly from Europe, leaving the Pyrenees Mountains separating France and Spain, crossing the Atlantic by ship, and traveling across the continent by railroad to their new western homes. These newcomers gradually became known for their tongue-twisting, non-European language, their roles as sheepherders, and their stubborn indarra, or fortitude. Some Euskaldunak slowly spread out from the Jordan Valley and Ontario regions, while others swarmed more quickly into the Boise, Nampa, and other areas to the east in Idaho. Together, these Basque colonies in eastern Oregon, northern Nevada, and western Idaho became known as the "Nampa triangle."

In the Jordan Valley community, Basque and non-Basque numbers expanded to approximately 600 families in the 1920s. The Basques established important markers of their ethnic presence by erecting several still-standing sandstone buildings, including three boarding houses, a fronton (for jai alai, pelota, or handball), and an essentially Basque-built Catholic church. For more than a century, the Jordan Valley community has remained as the most-recognized--even if increasingly less populous--Basque settlement in eastern Oregon.

The two decades from 1920 to 1940 saw major developments in the Basque communities of Oregon. Over time, symbols of an enduring Basque culture took root in the great Jordan Valley area. Indeed, a sign on Highway 95 passing through the area declared it the "Home of the Basques." Basques settled in or nearby the small communities of McDermitt (on the Idaho-Nevada state line), Andrews, Fields, and Arock, maintaining connections with friends and families who often relocated to adjacent and larger Euskaldunak communities in Idaho and Nevada.

Besides working as herders or at other ranch jobs, some men secured work as miners or as laborers on irrigated farms. Estimates indicate that Basques probably made up more than half of the 1,000 to 2,000 residents of southeastern Oregon but may have been nearly 90 percent of the area's sheep men. From the town of Jordan Valley would come two notable Oregonians of the post-1950 period. Anthony Yturri, after graduating from the University of Oregon Law School and moving to Ontario, became a well-known lawyer and influential Oregon legislator. Another lawyer, John Elorriaga, became the CEO of the U.S. Bank and an important Oregon business leader, after relocating to Portland.

But other challenges in the interwar years dramatically changed the character of the Amerikanuak presence in Oregon. The Depression of the late 1920s and 1930s, immigration restriction, the Taylor Grazing Act (1934), and assimilation processes took their toll on Oregon Basques. Economic hard times forced Basques to cut their expenses, shrink their flocks, and do more of their own work. Simultaneously, falling quotas for Spanish and French immigrants lessened the number of herders available from the Old Country. When the New Deal Congress passed the Taylor Grazing Act, Basque livestock men relying on public lands to graze their bands of sheep immediately felt a sharp restricting pinch. On another issue, Prohibition, the Basques often broke the law, making moonshine and importing illegal liquors for their home tables and to serve at their boarding houses. When assimilating pressures undermined ethnic consciousness among second and third generation Amerikanuak, older Basques began sponsoring picnics, boarding house gatherings, and other celebrations to keep Euskara (the Basque language), foodways, and other ethnic customs alive.

In the years following the early 1940s, the Basques of Oregon experienced continuing changes. The sheep industry, beset by international competition and diminishing demands for wool, fell on hard times. With the French and Spanish economies gradually recovering from postwar declines after World War II, fewer Basque men were willing to immigrate to the American West as poorly paid herders, isolated from European ties and removed for most of the year from Basques in American communities. Lonely lives under the big western sky seemed less and less appealing. Because of its isolation and meager pay, herding also rarely beckoned suburban Americans. That meant Basques and other livestock men were forced to look elsewhere for shepherds. Ranchers began searching in Mexico, South America, and even exotic areas like Nepal in the Himalayas for their herders.

Other shifts further transformed Oregon's Basques. From World War II forward, fewer and fewer Amerikanuak wanted to stay on isolated farmers and ranches. After young Basques went away to college or entered the service, they rarely returned to take up their family's agricultural pursuits. Instead, they headed for towns such as Ontario, Bend, Burns, Boise, and Portland for greater occupational opportunities, and most of these migrants married non-Basques. A clear shift in demographic patterns was taking place, with increasing numbers of Basques moving from rural areas in eastern Oregon to larger adjacent towns or more distant cities. The censuses of 1980, 1990, and 2000, which recorded 2,253, 2,257, and 2,627 Amerikanuak respectively, revealed that increasing numbers of Oregon's Basques had relocated to Boise and Portland.

At the opening of the twenty-first century, the images and realities surrounding Oregon's Basques were strikingly dissimilar. Sunday supplement newspaper stories and local lore, frozen in the past, often celebrated the state's Basques as sturdy herders and sheep men. But the facts told a different story: most of the state's Amerikanuak had abandoned its ranches and farms to become city dwellers. Even while the rich and unique heritage of the Basques in Oregon sustained long-held beliefs, they were becoming more and more like other Oregonians.

Richard W. Etulain
Richard Etulain received his Ph.D. from the University of Oregon in 1966 with a dissertation on the Oregon historical novelist Ernest Haycox. More recently, he has researched and written about several Oregon figures, particularly literary, cultural, and political men and women. Of his more than 40 authored or edited books, most focus on western or northwestern subjects, especially cultural, religious, and political history. He has also edited books dealing with the Basques of the Pacific Northwest.

Sources

William A. Douglass and Jon Bilbao, Amerikanuak: Basques in the New World (1975)

Richard W. Etulain, Basques of the Pacific Northwest (1991)

Richard W. Etulain, “Basque Beginnings in the Pacific Northwest,” Idaho Yesterdays 18 (Spring 1979): 26-32.

Nancy Zubiri, Basque America: A Travel Guide to Families, Feasts, and Festivals (1998)