European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 5, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Nationalist movement in their Homeland carried award by Eta a violence prone guerrilla group fighting or an Independent Basque nation for ils 32 million people in an area about she size of Maine. Just As american jews feel they have two homelands one Here and one in Israel to Many american basques fee something like says Bieter an irishman whose wife Eloise is a first generation american of Basque parents. Support for the separatist group Eta among american basques is minimal but in is there. Thai is Why the North american Basque organization Nabo has prohibited any political discussion or actively within its group. It is too divisive to allow basques Are United by distinct physical characteristics intruding a Large incidence of Type o blood Wilh a High re negative Factor and a Low proportion of Type b blood. All basques consider themselves Noble because Hoy were knighted As a nation Lor services at the ancient Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa. Because american basques Are so scattered in their adopted land they try hard to hold on to traditions which link them As an ethnic entity. Nabo was founded in 1974 to promote Basque culture and help keep the language alive. Twenty local Basque clubs have been organized in five Stales the District of Columbia and Canada. They Range from the opulent san Francisco Complex that employs a native Basque chef to a Small group of sheep orders that meets to play cards and dance in Buffalo Wyo. Longtime neighbors and non Basque spouses believe it is their zest Lor hard work and their scrupulous honesty that sets them apart. Work has always been the Way to recognition the most important element in Basque Bieter says. Next comes family loyalty to relatives All the Way past third cousins. And then there is honesty. If you re caught being dishonest or Lazy your reputation is gone. Much of the Basque culture is based on basques like their european relatives who run with the bulls at the festival of san Fermin at Pamplona also Lave parties. Every summer Nabo sponsors a festival of traditional singing and dancing easting and a special Basque roman Catholic mass. The two Clay Celebration is like a giant family reunion where basques renew friendships throw Oil the cares of a modern mostly Urban life and show Oil their cooking shepherding and musical talents. This year the festival attracted about 4,000 people to Buffalo doubling ils population and helping local rancher3 Lake their minds Oil Loo much summer heat and no rain. Simon Iberlin. The local chairman who organized the event is a retired sheep Man wih his Black deep set eyes High cheekbones Olive skin and Strong Torso. Iberlin looks 10 years younger than his 66 years. Me spent the festival hobbling on crutches because to d just broken his Pelvis in an argument with a stubborn Horsa who wanted to throw me Oft i refused like most basques. Iberlin takes a strange sort of Pride in the mystery of Basque gives me a Chance to come up with All kinds of. Theories about where we came from he says with a Grin. Some Peop a think we come from the lost City of Atlantis. Others say we were the first to be. A Basque brass band in traditional Gart performs during the Parade at the Wyoming Teit Ival. Christianize. Perhaps we came from the Caspian sea area in Southern Russia. It s my theory that we Are related to the Irish. We have the same traits and customs our arming practices Are identical and we have the same Black moods basques will Tell you their ancestors can be traced Back to the Middle palaeolithic age of about 70,000 years ago and lived in the pyrenees thousands of years before modern europeans arrived. Iberlin like Many older basques whose parents were immigrants Learned to speak the native language before English. Called Eskara the Basque language is considered autochthonous original and isolated from any other verbal communication on Earth. Legends claim it was spoken by Adam and eve and Hal one of the Adamic speaking sons of Noah settled in the. Mountains before the confusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel basques like to claim the Devil himself tried to learn it but alter eavesdropping seven years behind a door he gave up knowing Only the word Bai meaning Yea. Perhaps say the storytellers he even lost his Teeth in the ordeal. The Rev. Jean Pierre Etcheverry is a Catholic Proesl from Europe who is serving three years As cleric to America s basques. Based in san Francisco he drives thousands of Miles to officiate at weddings funerals and festivals throughout the West. He was an honoured guest . V ,. The Basque Community asked the Church Lor its own priest and the first one came Over from Europe in 1960," Etcheverry says in heavily accented English. I am the sixth priest to come. At first it was vary hard because i had no English and there were such Long travels. I try to serve 4,000 Basque families scattered All Over the place. But now i love it it is a wonderful Job the people Are so wonderful. I am truly throughout the festival the Smoky air was Rich with the scent of sizzling sausage and Iamb burgers cooking on grills. Some food Booths offered Strong cheeses and coarse dense Basque bread Lor Sale. Other stalls sold Wool blankets and crafts photographs of sheep and shepherds and Basque souvenirs imported from Europe. The festival s first Day was highlighted by a main Street Parade of antique sheep wagons. Nearly Avery Wagon had been the Canvas covered. 11 by-6-foot first Home of an immigrant Basque couple. Many wagons were hauled Down from the nearby big Horn mountains where they Are still used every summer As a Shepherd s Home while lending flocks tha Las Day of the gathering was Devolld to god in the morning and dogs in the afternoon an outdoor mass in a log band Shell. The altar decorated with whiskey barrels overflowing with petunias was partly conducted in Basque a brass band its members dressed in red while and Green costumes trumpeted fanfares to Herald highlights. Next came a picnic and a shepherding contest to choose the Best work dog. Dollie Iberlin in her Book the Basque web wrote of her husband Simon s and his people s heritage god was there every sunday and always the sheep the sheep. The yearly cycles of shearing lambing Docking trailing shipping and Breeding of sheep structured their lives. Money came in Only twice a year but love laughter and practical duties filled their lives. Their heritage Lell to their children.,. Is impressive Erma Bombeck i Don t know about you but election Day can t come a Day too soon for me i be got a Case of poll paralysis that May never get Well. ,. Every 15 seconds since the conventions of last summer pollsters have taken the voters emotional temperatures and translated them into a win or lose column. The result polls have taken their toll on me. It was t so bad years ago when there were Only a. Couple of pollsters but now it s Down to some reporter surveying Low White Collar workers in leather loafers As they exit a Resl Toomal a Demy s in Losangeles when i went on a vacation out of the country a couple weeks ago i thought it would be great to gel away from polls. Instead i had withdrawal symptoms. I woke up at night wondering How Bush was doing in Texas and what the Kennedy remark did for Bentsen. I was disoriented and confused not knowing if i was a majority or a minority. I asked a stranger. How do the Polis go in America he. Said Dukakis said he does t believe in polls i nodded. That Means Bush is ahead this week. The Only Lime a candidate does t believe in polls is when he s behind in does anyone Ever wonder about the people the pollsters query who Are they i know a Tot of people and not one of them has Ever been polled me included. Is this a Lull time Job Lor them and what will they do after nex tuesday i have a theory thai most of the people surveyed a retd Nial Seri families who used to tabulate what they watched on television and cancelled every Sho i Ever liked. Why. Should i believe them now not Only is the constant assault of percentages making me sick i m not sure polls have a place in a National. Election. I had a Friend running for office who walked Inola. Hotel 45 minutes alter our polls closed and was told by a local reporter that Dan rather in new Yor khad just. Declared her a loser and then was asked How she Felt about hat. think the polls have taken away something very precious thai rightfully belongs to the american voter the right to think and to arrive at a personal decision because he feels it s the right thing to do not because he is unsure of himself and figures the majority knows More than he knows or his Vole won t count against the Odds anyway. Want to go Back to the Days when i went to bed without knowing who our president would be until morning i want to hear it fro him not Lesley Stahl. I m not going to take a poll of now Many of you would like to Obj it on this practice. But for Iho Seol you who. Agree with me the next time someone Slicks microphone in your face As you exit the polls and did you vote Tell him it s none of his business. It la make him crazy. I la Ermo boar tick saturday novembers. 1968 the stars and stripes Page 17
