Basque sheepherding in the American West
I went back to my own hometown area to work on this assignment for BBC North America. It’s always good to get away from the city and connect with good ol folks on the farmland. I have been away for so long I have forgotten too much about my own youth and the way I was able to grow up in a carefree, don’t-come-back-until-dark boyhood. I need to go back home more often - it definitely reconnects me. When your a kid, you take for granted so much - you don’t see the beauty of what is right in front of you. You have to move away to really appreciate what you have left.
In the American West, some things change and some things always stay the same and this is a little of both. For more than a century, sheepherding has been the domain of Basque immigrants from high on the mountain slopes of the Pyrenees of Spain and France. While new immigrants from Chile, Peru and Mongolia are taking their place and mobile phones and other modern convinces are part of the herders kit, the long lonely hours are still the same.
Here is the BBC link to the story…
May 12th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Wow Micah! I loved your piece on sheepherding in Kern County….I think I recognize pork chops from Woolgrowers. I really loved the pic of the mama dog.