Short answers, pulled from the story.
Basques are a Southwestern European ethnic group indigenous to the Basque Country, a region straddling the western end of the Pyrenees on the Bay of Biscay, across north-central Spain and south-western France. They are considered among the last direct descendants of Neolithic European populations, sharing ancestry with the ancient Vascones and Aquitanians mentioned by Strabo and Pliny.
Basques speak Euskara, a language with no known relatives in any language family, making it a genetic isolate. Unlike virtually every other European language, it does not belong to the Indo-European family and is thought to have been spoken continuously in its present territory for longer than most modern European languages have existed. Today roughly 33 percent of the Basque Autonomous Community's population speaks the language.
The Basque diaspora in the Americas is substantial. The Chilean historian Luis Thayer Ojeda estimated that 48 percent of immigrants to Chile in the 17th and 18th centuries were Basque, with Basque descendants there now estimated between 2.5 and 5 million. An estimated 2.5 million Mexicans are of Basque descent, and large communities exist in the United States, particularly around Boise, Idaho, Reno, Nevada, and Bakersfield, California.
The War of the Vicuñas and Basques was an armed conflict in Charcas Province, Bolivia, fought between June 1622 and March 1625. It pitted Basque settlers against non-Basque Spaniards called Vicuñas over control of the silver mines of Potosí, Lípez, and Chichas, as well as control of the municipal government of Potosí.
Notable Basques include Juan Sebastián Elcano, who completed the first circumnavigation of the globe after Ferdinand Magellan died mid-journey, and Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus. Francis Xavier co-founded the Jesuits, Fermín Lasuén founded 9 of the 21 extant California Missions, and Father Alberto Hurtado was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on the 23rd of October 2005.
Pre-Christian Basque belief centered on a goddess called Mari, whose name appears in numerous place names. According to tradition, she traveled every seven years between caves on Mount Anboto and other mountains, with wet weather following her presence at Anboto. Her consort was Sugaar, and their meetings in the high mountain caves were said to produce storms.