The 1st Miss Black Rodeo USA is from right here in Arizona

Samirah Miller has been around horses for most of her life, but it wasn't until recently that she took that experience into the ring to compete in the first Miss Black Rodeo USA competition, and she won. Last month, she was crowned in the inaugural pageant.

ANNOUNCER: Once again, Ms. Lynette Campbell from Black Rodeo USA and Foundation, awarding our new queen for 2025. Watch her.

Born and raised here in Arizona, Miller is not just good with a horse. She has degrees in clinical nutrition and regenerative agriculture and runs Alchemy Farms in Gilbert, where she farms and teaches workshops on farming, gardening and its connections to her community’s roots.

Her social media proclaims: “I am my ancestors’ wildest dreams.”

And those roots go deep. Miller's family can be traced back to the first Black cowboys in Texas. And that is where she began her conversation with The Show.

Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ

Full conversation

SAMIRAH MILLER: My mother's side of the family. I'm a descendant of the Cartwright brothers, who were previously enslaved Africans in St. Augustine, Texas. We got hold of that deed, I want to say in 2018, but I come from country folk on both sides of the family. So on my mother's side, we've always kind of been around it.

And for me, kind of getting into this space, I think it's just like a reclamation, a rematriation to what my ancestors were doing and trying to just change the narrative more or less.

LAUREN GILGER: So you grew up in an agricultural kind of world?

MILLER: To some extent, yeah. I was also a collegiate athlete, so I kind of had some space between that. But I did grow up rodeoing. Took a break from it a little bit. Always had a garden with my dad. And yeah.

GILGER: Let me ask you about rodeoing in general, because I think even making that into a verb is going to be confusing to some people. What does it mean? Like, what did it mean, for example, when you were a kid, what did you do?

MILLER: I was the CVSE [Chandler Vaqueros Saddle Club] Rodeo …. They're located out of Queen Creek. So in that when I first started riding, which was around 9 years old, kind of just started some introductory lessons, Western lessons. So anything from like tacking your horse up, picking their feet out, just getting more comfortable being around a bigger animal from that perspective. Then kind of following years afterwards got into more intermediate and advanced riding skills. So trot, lope, cante. There's very different aspects of things that you could call it, but more or less just getting more comfortable knowing how to have adequate horsemanship.

And then I think I was around 11ish is when I first did my first ever gymkhana. So that was a combination of barrel racing, pole bending, and they usually have, like, a specialty event. So, yeah, I did that for about three, four seasons, and then kind of, kind of just not necessarily hobby horsing, but I've always been around it is basically what I'm trying to say.

GILGER: But you competed. You won some titles, but it was mostly for fun, it sounds like.

MILLER: It was mostly for fun.

GILGER: You went to college then and studied something that ended up in your master's program, at least being pretty relevant to. What is it that you do now? Tell us about that.

MILLER: So my undergraduate degree is actually in human biology, so I was pre-med. I really have always just been interested in, like, the body and how it works and things from that perspective. And then I got my first master's is in clinical nutrition. With that, I kind of just really wanted to understand, like, how nutrition played a role in human health, which then led me down another rabbit hole of agriculture.

Somewhere along the line, got a hold of a soil panel in comparison to a human blood panel, and I was like, oh, wow, we're testing for the same things. So I really just have been interested in, you know, the environment, human health, and I really just wanted to create change from that level. I really just started looking at soil.

I was like, oh, my gosh, like, what are we spraying on soil? How are people getting access to this? How are people getting access to fresh roots and vegetables? What does equity look like from that aspect?

GILGER: Let me ask you about the other strand in your life here, which is the rodeo.

MILLER: OK. Yeah, yeah.

GILGER: So you started off as a kid participating in rodeo competing sometimes, you go to college, you become, you know, an expert in farming, and these practices that sort of bring you back to your roots in a lot of ways. 

Where do these things come together for you? Did that happen when you found out about Black Rodeo?

MILLER: Yeah, I actually got a hold of one of the members from the Flying Crows, which is a horsemanship organization, and we kind of, I was like, OK, we really, I feel like we could bridge this with, like, ag and with rodeo aspects, because these are all things that our ancestors are doing.

For me, I really just, I want to be able to merge the two, you know, even from a land management perspective, since I have certifications in holistic management. Like, what if we're able to grow feed for the animals? You know, maybe it's not necessarily that you're having to go buy XYZ bales or huge astronomical amounts of bales. You can grow it on your own property. But that also takes into consideration, what does access look like?

And I think for Black rodeo specifically, the organization started because we wanted to highlight a space for Black writers. Because, you know, historically, the word cowboy comes from. It's a derogatory term that's oriented towards enslaved Africans. So, you know, we have a way of incorporating more or less a change of narrative.

I think that we don't have to, in the Black community, we don't have to have a negative relationship with it. And I think Beyonce is doing a great job of trying to increase visibility for it. But this is also something, something that we've been doing, and it's something that's not maybe as recognized like on the West, but like, in the East and South areas. Like, and it's not to say that we don't have it out here, but it's, we've been here. We've always been here. We just haven't had the recognition for it.

GILGER: Right. Like, you think of a cowboy in the Wild West, and you think of like a, you know, like a white guy in a cowboy hat riding a horse. But you're saying in parts of the South, especially, like, the vision of a cowboy might be very different. That's really cool. 

Let me ask you about, when you were a kid competing in rodeo, were you the only one who looked like you?

MILLER: Yeah. For CVSE, I was the only little brown girl out there. I didn't really have to deal with any racial situations in the organization that I was participating in. They really were aware, and they made sure that I didn't have to deal with anything like that. And they always checked people if there was a situation that came up, but I didn't necessarily have to deal with that.

And that's not to invalidate anybody else's experience for me. I just, I was one of one in my organization. So, you know, on both sides of the family, I've had folks that have rode horses. You know, it was just something that I was brought into or grew up in. I think with what's going on right now, folks are really wanting to get into rodeo be aware of, like, how to incorporate that in their lifestyle. I think it's a beautiful thing for the Black community.

GILGER: Yeah. So tell us about the pageant. I mean, like, this is the first one there's been. What does it consist of when you go to do something like this?

MILLER: So we had a series of personal interviews, we had a horsemanship portion where we did a reining pattern. We also had modeling and speeches that we had to do.

GILGER: So the horsemanship is in there, but other than that, it's kind of like a pageant you might think of otherwise.

MILLER: It's a pageant.

GILGER: What did it feel like to compete in this and have it be a Black rodeo? This is from Ms. Black Rodeo USA.

MILLER: It was awesome. I think that this is really cool. I think that for me, it's honestly a great honor to be the first inaugural, especially with the historical context of things. You know, I think it's really, it's time that we, you know, show folks that we've always been a part of this and we're gonna continue to keep being a part of it. And I think having the platform to be the face for the organization is something that I hold with a level of pride. ‘Cause this is overall creating a level of legacy for us, so.

GILGER: You think of it as a legacy moment, it sounds like. 

MILLER: It is.

GILGER: So you're on this kind of whirlwind tour as the winner here. What message are you hoping to get out there? Are you, you know, little girls at these events who are looking at you and going, I want to do this?

MILLER: Yes, ma'am.

GILGER: That's so cool.

MILLER: Yeah. So I really just want to create representation for young Black girls to know that they can do it too. You know, sometimes we in the Black community, we've been disenfranchised. There's been financial barriers, historic barriers.

We're really just trying to create a space to invite these kids in, to know that if this is something that they really want to pursue, they can. And I think that's where this representation starts with them seeing folks that look like them. So try to create that space for them.

GILGER: So do you feel like this is kind of a coming together of your two lives? Right, like of this kind of farming initiative, this education initiative around foods and soil and the, you know, the ways in which we're nourishing our bodies, and doing this kind of public-facing thing, as the first Miss Black Rodeo USA.

Like you talked about the disenfranchisement of Black communities in terms of not having those healthy foods, living in food deserts. Is this all coming together for you here?

MILLER: Oh, yeah. Originally, when I started my business, it was really I wanted to just do things for the community because I recognize that there's a need. So I think having the vocal platform and also showing people that they can do these things is something that I'm really looking forward to increasing visibility for.