The Racial Myth of the Basque Sheepherder

Basque sheepherders are outsized figures of the American West. Romanticized as lonely masters of the range, these supposedly intuitive shepherds were mythologized with a “Basqueness” that was “ancient, mysterious, and above all, Indigenous,” in the words of historian Mariel Aquino.

Aquino explores how the Western wool industry’s “preference for Basque herders arose not from Basques’ particular expertise but from narratives of their ancient origins and racial distinctiveness.” She notes...