He cited the Basques as an example in A defense of the Constitution of the United States, as he wrote in 1786: "In a research like this, after those people in Europe who have had the skill, courage, and fortune, to preserve a voice in the government, Biscay, in Spain, ought by no means to be omitted.

While their neighbours have long since resigned all their pretensions into the hands of kings and priests, this extraordinary people have preserved their ancient language, genius, laws, government, and manners, without innovation, longer than any other nation of Europe.

Basque immigration peaked after the Spanish Carlist Wars in the 1830s—Ebro customs relocated to the Pyrenees—and in the 1860s following the discovery of gold in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California.

By the 1880s, Basque immigration had spread up into Oregon, Utah, Montana and Wyoming, with significantly lesser numbers reaching the states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas in the southernmost region.

[3] The current census figures demonstrated in the U.S. map on this page are remarkably low in comparison to these reports and the overall increase in the U.S. population since the 19th century.

There are nearly fifty such clubs in the United States, the oldest of which is the Central Vascoamericano (founded 1913), today New York's Euzko Etxea situated in Brooklyn.

[7] Prominent Basque-American elected officials in Idaho include longtime Secretary of State Pete T. Cenarrusa, his successor Ben Ysursa, both Republicans, former Boise mayor Democrat David H. Bieter, as well as Republican, J. David Navarro, the current Clerk, Auditor and Recorder of Ada County, the most populated county in Idaho.

Mary Azcuenaga, an attorney who was appointed by Ronald Reagan to serve on the Federal Trade Commission, is a Basque-American born in Council, Idaho.

When delegates from the Basque clubs of Los Banos, San Bernardino; and San Francisco, California; Boise and Emmett, Idaho; Elko, Ely and Reno, Nevada; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Ontario, Oregon gathered together, they were well aware that there was little if any communication between the various Basque clubs of the American West.

Its prime purpose is the preservation, protection, and promotion of the historical, cultural, and social interests of Basques in the United States.

NABO's function is to sponsor activities and events beyond the scope of the individual clubs, and to promote exchanges between Basque-Americans and the Basque country.

The Wyoming Basque community, including a depiction of a religious festival, is the focus of the third episode of season two of Longmire, "Death Came Like Thunder.