Former Navajo Nation Vice President Rex Lee Jim Dies at 63

Rex Lee Jim, a prominent Navajo (Diné) leader who served as vice president of the Navajo Nation from 2011 to 2015, died Feb 25, 2026, at age 63, the Navajo Nation announced. His passing was publicly acknowledged by Navajo Nation leadership, marking the loss of a figure who bridged elected office and traditional roles.

Jim’s four-year term as vice president from 2011-2015 placed him at the center of tribal governance during that period. He held the vice presidency across issues affecting Navajo Nation institutions and communities, and his tenure is part of the recent history of tribal leadership that Apache County residents have followed through local government and Nation-to-county coordination.

Outside elected office, Jim was widely known as an educator and a poet, roles that put him in classrooms, cultural forums and public events across the Navajo Nation. He was also recognized as a medicine man and a cultural diplomat, positions that connected ceremonial practice with public representation and helped shape cultural programming that reached communities in Apache County and beyond.

The announcement from Navajo Nation leadership underscores Jim’s multifaceted public life: elected official, cultural practitioner and community educator. Those roles made him a frequent presence at tribal events and a public interlocutor on matters of Diné language, arts and traditional knowledge during and after his vice-presidential term.

Rex Lee Jim’s death at 63 closes a chapter for a leader who combined formal office with cultural stewardship. Navajo Nation leaders issued the public notice of his passing on Feb 25, 2026, and his legacy as a vice president from 2011 to 2015 and as an educator, poet, medicine man and cultural diplomat will shape memorials and remembrances across the Nation and in Apache County.