Basque sheepherders in the American west. Basques were recruited from Spain and France during the 1930s to tend sheep throughout the western states. Within days of arriving in America these men, with little or no sheepherding background, found themselves working alone, with two dogs and 2,000 sheep, sleeping in canvas tents, walking hundreds of miles across the mountains, in search of food and pasture. They cooked underground using Dutch ovens to bake bread and stew lamb, or ate at boarding houses that popped up along the sheepherding trail. And in Boise, once a year, feasted on chorizo and broad bean stew, while dancing to the Jota, at the Sheepherders’ Ball.