Migration and Sheepherding
Basque immigration peaked after the Spanish Carlist Wars in the 1830s, and in the 1860s following the discovery of gold in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range of Northern California. The current day descendants of Basque immigrants remain most notably in this area and across the Sierras into the neighboring area of northern Nevada, then northward, into Idaho. When the present-day states of California, Arizona and New Mexico were annexed by the United States after the Mexican-American War (1848), there were reportedly thousands of Basques of Spanish or mixed Mexican origin living in the Pacific Northwest. By the 1850s there were some Basque sheepherders working in Cahuenga Valley (today Los Angeles, California). In the 1870s, the Los Angeles and Inland Empire land rush reportedly attracted thousands of Basques from Spain, Mexico and Latin America, but such reports do not bear out in a current census of Basque persons in the Southern United States where Basque persons are exceptionally rare in US census reporting. By the 1880s Basque immigration had spread up into Oregon, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, with significantly lesser numbers reaching the Southern states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas in the Southern most region. By 1895 there were reportedly about ten thousand self reporting Basque-Americans in the United States. The current census figures demonstrated in the US map on this page are remarkably low in comparison to these reports and the overall increase in the US population since the 19th century. There has been a radical decrease in Basque immigration since that era which has resulted in the significant decline in persons of Basque National or Spanish origin throughout the US. Most of the self reporting Basque persons remaining in the US today are descendants of the original peak of Basque immigrants who arrived between 200 and 100 years ago, typically reporting as multi-generational or great great grandchildren (1860 immigrants) as opposed to native born persons of Basque racial identification and their subsequent immediate family, children, or grandchildren. The Spanish Right of Return extends Spanish citizenship only to the grandchildren of Basque immigrants who were born in Spain and forced to flee during the Francoish uprising, in the mid-1930s. The degree to which one self reports being "Basque" is a personal choice, often tied to an interest in one's heritage whether one is the grandchild of a native born Basque or of significantly mixed native American (Mexican, S. American, etc.), Anglo European, or other racial admixture. There are significant numbers of Mexicans with Basque names, as many as 1 million self reporting Mexicans of Basque racial or surname heritage today.
Thousands of Basques were recruited from Spain due to severe labor shortages during World War II. They came under contract with the Western Range Association between the 1940s until around 1970.
Read more about this topic: Basque American