Former Navajo Nation Vice President Rex Lee Jim died in Albuquerque Tuesday.
Navajo officials didn’t reveal a cause of death. He was 63 years old.
During his varied career, Jim served as a medicine man, teacher, author, diplomat and politician.
“Among his great achievements, he leaves behind a legacy of strengthening Navajo education and furthering diplomacy for Indigenous Nations internationally,” Navajo Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley said in a statement.
That sentiment was echoed by Navajo President Buu Nygren who called him a visionary leader.
“Rex Lee Jim’s life was one of service, wisdom, and compassion. His legacy will continue to inspire our Nation for generations,” Nygren said.
Jim was born and raised in Rock Point near Four Corners.
He served on the Navajo Nation Council and also as the tribe’s vice president during President Ben Shelley’s administration.
Jim was also a fierce advocate for recovering stolen and missing ceremonial items.
In 2014, he led a Navajo delegation to Paris and bought back several sacred objects up for auction.
“They are not art objects to be hung on walls. We, as a people, have a collective right to them,” Jim told KNAU at the time.
In 2018, Jim was among more than a dozen candidates who ran for Navajo president but didn’t make it past the primary election.
Despite his many roles in politics and tribal leadership, he ultimately saw himself as a poet.
“In Navajo, we really don’t distinguish poetry, plays, storytelling. And we have always been listening to stories most of our lives,” Jim said on KNAU’s Poetry Friday series in 2019. “As young kids, we listen to coyote stories, we listen to stories about our grandparents going down to the local store on horseback and who was there and what they were discussing.”
Jim said his poetry sought to push the capacity of the Diné language while keeping one foot rooted in tradition.
“I’ve always listened to elders, and the language they use. It’s very beautiful, very descriptive, articulate and authentic. It was just amazing, the vocabulary. They painted pictures with the language they used,” he said.
Jim authored three books in Diné, English and Spanish.
He also worked with the Carter Foundation to strengthen relations with Indigenous communities in South America’s Andes Mountains, traveling to Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador.
Jim also contributed to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
