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Rex Lee Jim
Mazii Dineltsoi
8th Vice President of the Navajo Nation
In office January 11, 2011 – May 12, 2015
President	Ben Shelly
Preceded by	Ben Shelly
Succeeded by	Jonathan Nez
Member of the 20th & 21st Navajo Nation Council
In office January 14, 2003 – January 11, 2011
Preceded by	Raymond Jones
Succeeded by	Nelson Begaye
Personal details
Born	1962 (1962) Rock Point, Arizona, U.S.
Died	February 24, 2026 (aged 63) Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.
Citizenship	United States, Navajo Nation

Rex Lee Jim (Navajo: Mazii Dineltsoi; 1962 – February 24, 2026) was an American politician and writer. As a Navajo Council Delegate and Vice President of the Navajo Nation, he served under President Ben Shelly. Jim died on February 24, 2026, at the age of 63.

Early life and education

Jim was born in Tsédildǫ́’ii, Arizona to a mother from the Kinłichíi’nii (Red House People) and a father of the Táchii’nii (Red Streak Running into Water People). His maternal grandfather was Kinyaa’áanii (Towering House People) and his paternal grandfather was Naakaii Dine’é (Mexican People). His mother was a weaver and housewife and his father was a farmer and rancher. He had seven siblings and was the fourth-born child of his parents.

His maternal grandfather was a medicine man and taught Jim traditional Navajo blessingways. Because of this education, Jim did not enter the school system until age eight.

He was a student at Rock Point Community School and later attended Newfound School in North Carolina for one year before graduating high school at Colorado Rocky Mountain School. He received an undergraduate degree from Princeton University, where he majored in English. While there, he restarted the university's dormant Native American group and became its president. He received a master's degree from Middlebury College, where he also studied English. At the time of his death, he was in the process of completing a PhD at Arizona State University.

He was a fluent speaker of Navajo, English, and Spanish, and was literate in all three languages.

Career

Teaching and writing

Throughout his career, Jim taught at a number of different institutions. Jim was a faculty member in English and Diné Studies and was dean of the School of Diné Studies and Education at Diné College. He was also an instructional specialist at the Center for Diné Teacher Education.

At one point, he was also a teacher at Rock Point Community School, where he had himself attended school.

Politics

Jim served on the 20th and 21st Navajo Nation Council, from 2003 to 2011. While in this position, he also served as chairman of the Public Safety Committee. As a delegate, he also served as a representative to the United Nations from the Navajo Nation, in which capacity he helped draft the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

In 2010, he announced his candidacy for the position of President of the Navajo Nation, but he finished fourth in the primary. Ben Shelly, who had finished second, selected him as his vice presidential candidate, and the pair won the election. Jim was Vice President of the Navajo Nation from 2011 until 2015. He ran for president a second time in 2018 but was not elected.

Other work

He was a medicine man and a blessingway singer at the Diné School of Ceremonial Science.

Personal life

Jim never married. He raised his sister's five children, who lived in his home near Rock Point and for whom he was the legal guardian.

He died on February 24, 2026, at the age of 63.

Selected works

Jim wrote in Navajo, Spanish, and English.

Poetry:

• Áhí Ni’ Nikisheegiizh
• Saad
• Saad Lá Tah Hózhóón
• Dúchas / Táá Kóó Diné

Other:

• Dancing Voices: Wisdom of the American Indian (as editor)

Jim was also a playwright.