Trailing of the sheep focus on peruvians
By KAREN BOSSICK<br><i>The Wood River Journal</i>
	Their names are Roca. And Eduardo. And Francisco.
	And they come from Peru, a country better known for its alpaca and llamas than sheep.
	But these men are an indispensable part of Idaho&#039;s sheep industry, moving the sheep on foot hundreds of miles through sagebrush and mountain meadows and protecting them from coyote and wolves nearly six months of the year.
	Now these men, who spend months with no one to talk to but the sheep, will get their moment in the spotlight Friday through Sunday as the 11th annual Trailing of the Sheep Festival celebrates the contribution of Peruvians to the sheep industry in Idaho.
	&#8220I&#039;m excited that we&#039;re able to acknowledge them and their rich culture,&#8221; said festival co-founder Diane Peavey. &#8220Not many people know much about Peru and Peruvians in the United States, even though Peruvian sheepherders have been coming here 20, 25 years. When I started to research the subject, I found there had been very little written about the subject so I feel we&#039;re breaking new ground here.&#8221;
	Peavey co-founded the festival 11 years ago with her husband, Flat Top Sheep Rancher John Peavey. 
The reason? Newcomers to the wealthy enclave of Sun Valley were complaining about sheep trailing past their multi-million dollar condo windows and leaving doodads on the bike path that might smear on their bike tires and Rollerblades.
	The couple decided to tackle the problem by inviting locals to come out and join  the sheep as they trailed through town on their migration route.
	Today that small grassroots parade has turned into a three-day festival, complete with a day-long folk life fair featuring music and dance of the Polish Highlanders, Peruvians, Basques, and Scots&#045;any ethnic group that has had a hand in working with sheep.
	There are wool spinning demonstrations, sheep shearing and dog herding demonstrations, lamb tastings and wooly verse poetry.
	And this year the festival will feature renowned Peruvian retablo artist Jeronimo Lozano and the Utah Hispanic Dance Alliance, which will present a theatrical rendition of the dance, music and folk costumes of Peru.
	The highlight, though, as always, will be the struttin&#039; of the mutton at noon  Sunday, as 1,500-plus wooly buggers parade down Main Street Ketchum, which sits in the shadow of Sun Valley.
	The unique parade has attracted articles in dozens of publications, including &#8220USA Today,&#8221; &#8220Business Week,&#8221; &#8220The Baltimore Sun,&#8221; &#8220The Los Angeles Times&#8221; and &#8220Country Living.&#8221; And it&#039;s drawn gawkers from as far away as Florida, Illinois and even Wales, not to mention &#8220CBS Sunday Morning&#8221; and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has a home in the Sun Valley area
&#8220I&#039;m really excited about what they&#039;re trying to do this year,&#8221; said Edwin Roman, a transplanted Peruvian who now owns a market specializing in Latin American imports in the valley. &#8220Until now they&#039;ve always focused on the Basque culture. Now people will now that our people also are an important part of the area.&#8221;