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29 Soc. F. 155 (1950-1951)
Enclavement among Southwest Idaho Basques

handle is hein.journals/josf29 and id is 171 raw text is: ENCLA VEMENT AMONG SOUTHWEST IDAHO BASQUES ENCLAVEMENT AMONG SOUTHWEST IDAHO BASQUES* JOHN B. EDLEFSEN State College of Waihington N THE western states, especially Idaho, Ore- gon, Nevada, Utah, and California, is found an immigrant group little known outside the immediate areas it occupies. It is a group which deserves study and analysis from the standpoint of the sociologist because of its interesting history in its Old World provinces in the Pyrenees region of Spain and France, and because of its many con- tributions to the development of the region it occu- pies in the United States. Any element of the American population deserves study, but such study is especially interesting and important socio- logically when the acculturation processes have developed with an almost complete absence of prejudice and conflict, as is apparent in the case of the Basque people. Southwest Idaho, or more specifically the coun- ties of Ada, Gem, Canyon, Owyhee, Elmore, Good- ing, and Lincoln, is commonly thought of as the center of Basque population in the United States, and Boise, the capital city of Idaho is often referred to as the Basque Capital. The study upon which this paper is based is limited to those Basques re- siding in this southwest Idaho area. In colloquial terms, these people are sometimes referred to as Bascos. Unfortunately, accurate statistics about the number of Basques residing in the United States are not available. Immigration records show the Basques only as Spanish or French. The Basque Delegation in the United States, which maintains offices in New York City, has estimated the number of Basque immigrants and their descendants re- siding in Idaho, Oregon, and Nevada at 15,000. In the opinion of the writer, this estimate is somewhat high. A more realistic estimate would put the number in Idaho at about 3000 with perhaps a like number in Nevada, but considerably fewer in Oregon. While the total number of Basques in southwest Idaho is few, they represent the largest immigrant group in the area and contribute a sig- * This paper is a partial revision of a section of a larger study by the writer, A Sociological Study of the Basques of Southwest Idaho (unpublished manuscript, State College of Washington, 1948). The study was supported in part by the State College of Washington Research Fund. nificant proportion to a total population which is not large. Much of the data in the study is taken from in- terviews of foreign-born and second-generation Basques conducted during the summer of 1947. Most of the interviews with foreign-born Basques were in such detail that they are, in effect, life his- tories and thus added greatly to the understanding of the entire group. In addition, the non-partici- pant observer and the participant observer meth- ods were utilized. The writer, a native of southwest Idaho, attended grade, high school, business col- lege, junior college, and university along with many second-generation Basque students. He was, on various occasions, invited into Basque homes and participated with them in recreational activities. It was the writer's opportunity, also, to become ac- quainted with several Basque businessmen while operating his own business in Boise. Later, as an instructor at the Boise Junior College, he had several Basque students in his classes. This paper is limited to a brief analysis of the situation of enclavement which existed in several southwest Idaho Basque communities. Enclave- ment is a concept which has received very little attention from sociologists. The principal refer- ences to it are found in some of Bogardus' work.' As here used the term is defined largely as Bo- gardus defined it as the state of being enclosed within a foreign culture or territory-a condition of cultural and biological identity and continuation in a situation of social interaction.' The first Basques entered the Nevada area in the 1860's or early 1870's. Others followed who mi- grated into eastern Oregon and southwestern Idaho in the late 1880's. During the early 1890's, a num- ber of Basques made their way to Boise, Idaho. Boise was then a thriving little community, having developed rapidly out of the gold rush into the Boise basin area which began in 1862. Boise be- came an incorporated town in 1866. When the IE. S. Bogardus, Sociology (New York: The Mac- Millan Co., 1941), p. 405, and E. S. Bogardus, Racial Enclavement, Sociology and Social Research, XXV (May-June, 1941), 460-65. 2 Bogardus, Racial Enclavement, loc. cit., pp. 460-61.

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