Speaking Through the Aspens
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Speaking Through the Aspens

Basque Tree Carvings in Nevada and California

J. Mallea-Olaetxe

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eBook - ePub

Speaking Through the Aspens

Basque Tree Carvings in Nevada and California

J. Mallea-Olaetxe

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About This Book

Speaking Through the Aspens analyzes the content of thousands of arboglyphs in the mountains of Nevada and California by topic—language, politics, the Basque homeland, the sheepherd's life, sex, and pictorial themes. In addition, author Mallea-Olaetxe has examined such sheepherder artifacts as sheep camps and bread ovens, conducted extensive interviews with former herders and sheep company personnel, and undertaken research in immigration and other records. The result is a highly original work of history—a detailed account of the lives of Basque sheepherders in the American West. For the first time, these men who contributed so much to the development of the region, many of whom went on to establish the West's thriving Basque community, speak for themselves about their experiences. Enhanced by numerous illustrations, this book is history at its most engrossing, essential reading for scholars and anyone curious about the arboglyph phenomenon.

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Year
2016
ISBN
9780874174571

chapter one

A Forest of Names

Peavine Mountain and Copper Basin
The sheepherder’s primary purpose and ambition when approaching an aspen with his knife was to carve his name and the date. At its heart, the arborglyph phenomenon is the history of individual herders who through their carvings are enjoying their moment in the limelight.
During my presentations of arborglyphs I often ask my audience this question: “If you had only one tree to carve, what message would you inscribe?” The answer is always the same: “my name.” Names are essential in our culture. Without them, history would be devoid of interest, for we could not identify ourselves with the players, whether heroes or villains. So the herders were no different from the rest of us in that regard. But, of course, they had other ways to inscribe their identities as well.
Self-identity can be stamped in written form, as a self-portrait, or in the figure of a hand, but each form means the same thing. In the summer of 1925 Manuel Iturregi of Humboldt County, Nevada, put his left hand on a clean aspen tree and with his knife held in his right hand traced around his fingers. In the same drainage, Batita Barrenetche did likewise on 8 September 1956. The hands seem to be saying: “I was here; this is me,” and perhaps: “I am a good herder.”1
Was history per se a concern for the herders? Yes, for a number of them it was. Facundo Amostegui working the Sierra in 1964 wanted everyone to know that he had built the corrals2 at “Kloba Meros” (Clover Meadows). In Columbia Basin, Elko County, a fellow named Eusebio claimed to be a “famous Bizkaian sheepherder.” The herders who bragged about their professionalism or about growing the fattest lambs are also expressing a desire to be remembered by posterity. But even when we are not sure of the carver’s intentions, the arborglyphs do answer some of the crucial questions of history: who, when, and where.
image
Localizing Sheepherders by Range
The carvings are geographical markers, like the soldiers the general places strategically on the map of the battlefield spread on the table. The herders were the soldiers of the sheep business, and if we marked all of their carved names and the dates on the Nevada map, we would have a bird’s-eye view of their whereabouts and movements. Let us briefly journey through some of the major sheep ranges that contain tree carvings. (See Appendix 1 for a list of the names recorded in most of the mountain ranges discussed below.)
Yosemite National Park, California
The Sierra Nevada was an early target of sheepherders escaping the crowded conditions in the valleys of California or seeking relief from the drought. Arborglyphs can be found in the Sierra National Forest—south of Yosemite—and farther south in Sequoia National Forest. Presumably some of the older arborglyphs are still there, but no one has recorded them.
According to park historian James Snyder, there were never more than fifty herders in Yosemite in the summer even during the peak of the sheepherding business. Emigrants Pass north of the park, Mammoth Pass, and the headwaters of the San Joaquin River were much more important ranges. Competition was fierce there between cattlemen and sheepmen, and there are several “Graveyard Meadows” where shootings and deaths occurred.3
Within the park itself, the oldest blaze outside Yosemite Valley was carved by Antonio GA or EG and is dated 1875. The initial A is more elaborate than the rest, a characteristic observed in many Basque aspen carvings of the present century. Blazes with dates carved in succession are probably the work of sheepherders as well.4
Snyder has identified a number of sheep camps, often with crosses carved on nearby trees, a detail that he associates with Basques. In 1881 Col. William Shepherd noted an interesting fact about sheepherding in the Yosemite when he observed that herders felled large trees over rushing streams so that their sheep could walk over them to the opposite side.5
Toward the turn of the century, Basque herders accustomed to pasturing their charges in the high Sierra faced the opposition of the cavalry and the new managers of federal reserves, the Forest Service rangers. Snyder told me that the herders knew the terrain better than the federal guardians and often eluded them. According to Jeronima Echeverria, herders sometimes nailed messages on trees to warn fellow herders of the whereabouts of the federal agents.6
Most of the Basque herders in Yosemite were from Iparralde, and they inscribed more messages in Euskara than did their countrymen from other regions. Under the circumstances, the Basque language may have become a strategic tool for the herders, who left messages in a language the rangers could not understand. All in all, however, the number of identifiable Basque carvings in Yosemite National Park is negligible.
Eldorado National Forest, California
The archaeologists and historians working in this forest were among the first to record tree carvings. The groves on Packsaddle Road and in the Long Canyon area were recorded by Linda Goddard and Dana Supernowicz from 1978 on. They documented about a half-dozen herders from the 1910s to 1940, most from Nafarroa.
Toiyabe National Forest, Bridgeport, California
Quite a few people have contacted me to report many carvings in the Bridgeport area. I have recorded only a few hundred of them. Today Bridgeport still has some sheep. In the 1930s through the 1950s, when Alfonso Sario and Santiago Presto (they were related) ran sheep, Bridgeport was their summer headquarters. Today the Iturriria Sheep Company leases their land and has taken over their allotments.
Monitor Pass, California-Nevada Border
This forest is rich in information. I have recorded about one thousand carvings, but much remains to be recorded. Especially abundant are artwork and figures, which surpass most other areas. It appears that some of the outfits that ran sheep in this area were based in Gardnerville and Minden, Nevada.
The carvings begin in 1901 with Alfonso Zuricaray, and there are seven more names dated in the first decade of the century. About 70 percent are Iparralde Basques, 25 percent are from Nafarroa, and 5 percent are Bizkaians and others. The Bordas and the Laxalts are represented prominently. The three Borda brothers—Guilen, Batita, and Erramun (Ramon)—were natives of Bidarray (Benafarroa). This large family lived in the Oilaskoa farmstead, perched on a steep hillside. The Bordas carved their names differently, perhaps according to the mood of the moment, in Basque, Spanish, or French. Apparently the first, Guilen, had arrived in Monitor by 1909, but Batita also carved at Bliss Canyon in the same year. Almost all of their carvings are dated between 1911 and 1919, but their carving activity peaked in 1915. In the following decade the Bordas ran their own sheep, and they stayed in business until 1997.7
Pine Nut Range, Carson Valley, Nevada
The sheepherders spelled the name phonetically and carved it “Painot” or “Pinot.” This is BLM territory, and the Carson City District partially funded the research I conducted on Pine Nut. I have not heard any reports of conflicts between Basques and Native Americans, who visited this range regularly to harvest pine nuts.
The many arborglyphs here (about 750 cataloged so far) indicate that the area was heavily grazed. During dry years dispirited herders would vent their frustration by carving “Pinot is not worth a dick” and similar messages.8
This range was used by the same sheepherders who worked on Monitor Pass, and names such as Laxalt, Borda, and Dangberg are repeated in both areas. According to BLM records, Laxalt and Borda quarreled over grazing boundaries on Pine Nut, but such arguments were not unheard of among herders.9 Even in 1987, an old herder shook his makila while complaining to me about the younger herders in his outfit who tried to push their sheep into his territory and feed on the best grass.10
Several harri mutilak on the mountain ridges on either side of Carson Valley may have been placed there as reference points and range boundaries to minimize disputes over allotments. One on top of Pine Nut looks impressive from a distance, but I never hiked close enough to photograph it.
Pine Nut has relatively few old carvings, possibly because of its proximity to population centers and their mining and woodcutting activities. Incidentally, one abandoned mine and its mill are located right by the aspens, and a nearby tree reads: “Morgan Mining Co.” I recorded eight initials and names dated between 1900 and 1910, among them P. Laxalt in 1906; twenty-four for the following decade; twenty for the 1920s; and only thirteen for the 1940s.
Intense carving activity occurred here during the 1940s, much of it the work of a handful of herders who produced considerable sexual material and erotic representation; but the 1960s were the most prolific. By this time four herders from Cantabria (also called La Montaña or Santander, Spain) had joined the Basques, and they carved dozens of trees each.
Hope Valley, California
I found an 1896 carving here, one of the oldest in the Sierra. It depicts a pair of open legs, and below them the word caca (shit).
One notable carver is Felipe Errea from Mezkiriz, Nafarroa. He arrived in Reno in 1944 as part of the Nevada Range Sheep Owners Association’s effort to recruit Basque sheepherders. All the recruiters were from the highlands of Nafarroa. Errea and his friends Jose Babace, Fermin Jorrajuria, and Raimundo Villanueva came together and worked for J. B. Dangberg of Minden. Babace worked at the ranch, but the others herded sheep and left their names carved in the mountains. Stars were Errea’s favorite motif, along with regional references.
Genoa Peak Area, Nevada
As a rule, inscribed names dated during the 1910s far outnumber those from the previous decade. But that is not the case on Genoa. This anomaly appears to indicate that Toiyabe National Forest was already dispensing permits and controlling grazing.
This area contains some prime mountain meadows where a few aspens carved in 1900 still survive. Two of the carvers, Louie Johnson and Emilio Alvarez, were there for several years. Anton Inda’s summer grazing grounds extended south to Stanislaus NF and Yosemite, where he was carving several years later. In 1907 he was back on Genoa.11 Among his contemporaries were John Egoscue and A. Salet.
Several Basque outfits such as the Bordas, Laxalts, Grenades, Hachquets, and Uharts had their kanpo handia (main summer camp) on this mountain. Senator Paul Laxalt carved his name near the camp when he was just a young boy.
The legacies of some of the most prolific and outstanding carvers are found here; for example, Batista Amestoy, who imprinted his name calligraphically; Jose Mitjana, the star worshiper; Martin Lanathoua, the snake lover; and Etienne Maizcorena, master of them all, who carved beautiful couples, horses and riders, bucks, and crosses.
Spooner/Marlette Lake, Nevada
This range, located north of U.S. 50, is practically a continuation of Genoa Peak, and thus many of the herders’ names occur in both locations. Only the extreme eastern slopes of the Sierra in the Hobart and Little Valley areas contain different names. The groves in Marlette contain older carvings, but fewer than those on Genoa. An article published in 1971 mentions a carving on the Marlette Lake trail dated 1895, but I am afraid most of the carvings from the 1800s have not survived.12
One notable herder in these parts was Martin Banca. He must have worked for more than one boss because he traversed much of the northern Sierra. North of Lake Tahoe the documentation on him begins in 1901. In Marlette/Spooner his last date is 1923, but he continued herding sheep elsewhere for another decade. Banca—from the village of the same name in Benafarroa—appears to have been a rather typical figure of the Nevada/California desert, a wanderer and loner, the sheepherder version of Pete Aguer(r)eberry, the Basque miner of Death Valley. This area is significant for Nevada Basques because the old Laxalt sheep camp is located high above Marlette. Although it is snowbound for much of the year, the Laxalts preserve it as a family heirloom and a piece of Nevada sheep history. Robert Laxalt immortalized these ranges in Sweet Promised Land, a book about his sheepherder father, Dominique, one of three brothers who came to America in the early 1900s from the mountainous region of Zuberoa. The Laxalts are the best-known Basque family in the state. They include Robert Laxalt, the well-known western author and founder of the University of Nevada Press (1961), and Paul Laxalt, governor (1966–70), senator (1974–86) for Nevada, and prominent figure in the Republican Party.
Unfortunately, few carvings have been found in the vicinity of the camp itself. According to Robert Laxalt,13 his father did not carve, but his uncle Jean-Pierre left interesting statements, especially in Basque. His preferred subject was birds, of which he left numerous delicate figures. President Ronald Reagan once came to visit the sheep camp, and he, too, carved his name.
In the Laxalt family archive are several outstanding cultural documents in the form of letters in the Basque language that the brothers wrote to each other or to other friends in the American West.14 These letters are good examples of a type of Euskara Batua (Unified Basque Language) that took form among the Basques in the western United States long before it became a reality in Euskal Herria. Laxalt sprinkled his native Zuberoan dialect with other dialects, especially that from Benafarroa and Nafarroa, the dominant dialects in the Nevada and California sheep ranges.
Mount Rose, Nevada
Between Marlette Peak and Mount Rose are Hobart and Little Valleys. Numerous traces of sheep activity are found here, but few of the carvings are outstanding.15 Mount Rose is the tallest range in the Reno-Tahoe area, and additional mountain ranges and drainages are covered under this umbrella designation. The area contains large aspen groves that to date remain unrecorded; for example, Hunter ...

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