BOOKSHELF

BOOKSHELF BY BUDGE RUFFNER

BASQUE SHEEPHERDERS OF THE AMERICAN WEST. A PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTARY. Photographs by Richard H. Lane; text by William A. Douglass. University of Nevada Press, Reno, Nevada 89557. 1985. 184 pages. $19.50, hardcover.

Under the guidance of the Basque Studies Pro gram of the University of Nevada, the University of Nevada Press has published ten extraordinary books deal ing with a small but ad mirable ethnic group. The Basques, sturdy, devout people whose homeland is in the western Pyrenees of France and Spain, have a pattern of leaving their native land to make a living. This is often done with the ultimate goal in mind that, with the aid of full employment and the practice of parsimony, they will one day return home to live under improved circumstances.

Traditionally, thousands of young Basque men have come to the American West where the job of sheepherd ing was readily available. They proved good stewards of the herds and seemed to suffer less than others from weeks of isolation imposed by remote ranges and wilder ness. After years of hard labor and loneliness, lightened only by an occasional festival, not every Basque went back to his homeland. Many remained. The American West is better today because of them. They became community leaders, bankers, professionals and businessmen, politi cians and educators. Still clinging to their customs, they enriched this land they had learned to love. They were high achievers; numerous tongue-twisting Basque names are listed on the roll of leaders of the West.

Basque Sheepherders of the American West tells by photograph and text of the grueling, isolated life led by the herders as they move their bands from valley to moun tain and back to valley as the seasons change. Richard H.

BASQUE SHEEPHERDERS OF THE AMERICAN WEST A Photographic Documentary

Lane, an anthropologist and sensitive photographer, has captured on film an honest account of a way of life that soon may become but dim legend.

William A. Douglass, coordinator of the Basque Studies Program at the University of Nevada, Reno, has done an excellent job providing the text in English, Spanish, French, and Basque. This novel approach widens the circulation of the publica tion to include readers worldwide.

In the text are cogent accounts of herding and trail ing, life in camp, shearing and shipping, the critical lambing season, and the colorful Basque social life centering on festivals and feast days. Lane's twenty superb color plates and forty halftones bring to the reader the empty faces of solitude, the Basque love of competitive sport, and the joy of Basque children in native dress singing the "Star Spangled Banner."

In the aspen groves of many mountains of the West one can still find the messages of Basque sheepherders carved into the white trunks of these ghosts of the forest; dates, names, and statements, now black with age. They often tell more than they intended. Stories of despair, they de scribe a thirst for company. But they also tell a young herder that someone else has passed this way, lived this life, and gone on. Sometimes, on a naked ridge, a carefully stacked pile of rocks may be found. This is one of the harrimutilak or stone boys, a silent surrogate friend to lessen loneliness. With Basque Sheepherders of the Ameri can West, Richard Lane and William Douglass have made a genuine contribution to our understanding of a people and an industry we have sometimes encountered but never really known. This may well be the record of a part of the West that will soon vanish.

ARIZONA WILDFLOWERS BOOK 2; ARIZONA CACTI AND SUCCULENTS BOOK 2. Text by Rodney G. Engard; illustrations by Erni Cabat. Cabat Studio Publications, Tucson. 1985. 32 pages each. Softcover in slipcase. Available through Arizona Highways, 2039 West Lewis Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85009; telephone (602) 258-1000. $13.95, including postage.

Of all the exotic plants of the Oworld, none attract the lovers of living beauty more than those of the western deserts. Ari zona offers a variety of wild flowers, cacti, and succulents to enchant even the once indifferent. Rodney Engard, director of the Tucson Botanical Gardens, and nature artist Erni Cabat have again combined their talents to produce an informative and colorful pair of booklets on the subject. The books are contained in an attractive slipcase and printed on fine quality acid-free paper. Each full-color illustration is printed with the descriptive text on a companion page, allowing easy reference. Cabat and Engard tell us of plants of incredible beauty, tended by no human hand.