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Blessing at the World’s Oldest Rodeo®

  • Writer: MIP Author
    MIP Author
  • 2 days ago
  • 3 min read

Updated: 18 hours ago

Museum of Indigenous People Executive Director Manuel Lucero, Cherokee, was invited to provide a blessing ceremony during rodeo week at the World’s Oldest Rodeo® in Prescott, Arizona. The ceremony honored Indigenous heritage, the land, and the community connections that continue to shape Prescott’s living history.
Museum of Indigenous People Executive Director Manuel Lucero, Cherokee, provides a blessing ceremony at the World’s Oldest Rodeo® in Prescott, Arizona. Photo courtesy of Signals.

At the start of rodeo week in Prescott, Museum of Indigenous People Executive Director Manuel Lucero, Cherokee, stepped into the arena for a moment of respect, tradition, and community. Lucero was recently invited to provide a blessing ceremony for this year’s World’s Oldest Rodeo® in Prescott, Arizona, bringing an Indigenous presence into one of the city’s most visible and long-running public traditions. The image shared from the ceremony shows Lucero in the arena during the blessing, surrounded by the setting, symbols, and community gathering that define rodeo week in Prescott.


The moment matters because Prescott’s rodeo is not only a sporting event. Prescott Frontier Days traces its rodeo history to July 4, 1888, when local merchants and businessmen organized a formal “cowboy tournament” with cash prizes, documented winners, and planned contests. Juan Leivas, a cowboy from the Big Sandy Valley who was working near Prescott at the time, is widely identified as the winner of rodeo’s first professional title, documented in the Arizona Journal-Miner.



The World’s Oldest Rodeo® History Runs Deep


Prescott’s claim as home of the World’s Oldest Rodeo® is tied to documentation, organization, and continuity. Sharlot Hall Museum notes that the 1888 event included the major ingredients of a present-day rodeo: a committee, invited cowboys, entry fees, admission for spectators, prizes, and newspaper documentation. The ProRodeo Hall of Fame also recognizes Prescott Frontier Days, noting that the rodeo was first staged in 1888 in Forbing Park and that “World’s Oldest Rodeo” became a U.S. registered trademark in 1985.


That history is important, but it is not the whole story of the region. Prescott’s public memory is often told through ranching, mining, military history, frontier settlement, and rodeo tradition. Indigenous peoples were here before those later chapters, and Indigenous communities continue to carry knowledge, ceremony, family histories, and cultural responsibilities tied to this land.



Why the Blessing Was Meaningful


Signals reported that Manuel Lucero from the Museum of Indigenous People shared “a powerful moment of tradition, respect, and community.” Their post noted that his blessing honored the deep history of the land and the people who continue to carry these stories forward. That language fits the larger mission of MIP, which works to instill understanding and respect for the Indigenous cultures of the Southwest through exhibits, educational programs, cultural presentations, and community events.


Lucero’s presence at the rodeo did not replace the event’s Western history. It broadened it. A blessing at the World’s Oldest Rodeo® reminds visitors and residents that Prescott’s heritage is layered, and that Indigenous history is not something separate from the city’s identity. It is part of the land, part of the community, and part of the story still being lived today.



A Connection Between Heritage, Culture, and Community


The World’s Oldest Rodeo® brings thousands of people to Prescott each summer, gathering families, rodeo athletes, visitors, local businesses, and community organizations around a tradition that has continued for generations. Prescott Frontier Days describes the annual rodeo as a tradition presented since 1888 at the Prescott Rodeo Grounds, with events including steer wrestling, bareback riding, tie-down roping, women’s breakaway roping, saddle bronc riding, team roping, barrel racing, bull riding, and other rodeo-week activities.


For the Museum of Indigenous People, moments like this help connect the museum’s work to the wider community. MIP’s role is not limited to its galleries. Through public programs, presentations, partnerships, and ceremonies, the museum helps create space for Indigenous voices and perspectives in places where community history is being remembered, celebrated, and retold.



More Than an Opening Moment


As rodeo week began, Lucero’s blessing offered a pause before the competition and celebration. It invited people to remember the land beneath the arena, the histories that came before the grandstands, and the living Indigenous cultures that remain connected to this region.


The World’s Oldest Rodeo® is one of Prescott’s most recognized traditions. This year, the blessing ceremony helped remind the community that heritage is strongest when it makes room for the full story.




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