 Basque Traditions They live in Wyoming now but their European roots are in the Pyrenees Mountains between France and Spain. Some 80 descendants of the first Basque immigrants to Johnson County, Wyoming are members of the Big Horn Basque Club, an organization whose purpose is twofold--social and historical. Younger Basques who have grown up in the shadow of the Big Horn Mountains are actively exposed to their ethnic heritage even though most of them have never lived in a sheep wagon. The Basque people are generally viewed as talented singers and "awesome" dancers. Many of their young people participate in Basque street dancing for social events in their families' new homeland. Dressed in bright red skirts, white shirts and black vests, the young women complement the men in their black berets and dark pants. Other remaining facets of their European heritage is drinking wine from a goatskin bag known as a chakua (or in Spanish, a bota), and mus, a popular Basque card game. Another ethnic characteristic common to those of Basque descent is ingenuity, a trait often put to work in the sometimes uncertain business of ranching. It is a characteristic which is a carry-over from their ancestors who were dealing with the European emphasis on noble birth. The Basque people simply solved the issue by declaring all Basque to be "noblemen." In Wyoming the Basques need not worry about being of noble birth--they have made their own notable place in their adopted homeland. |
