Former Standing Rock tribal chairman dies of COVID-19

FORT YATES, N.D. – Family members say the former chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has died after contracting COVID-19, not long after his wife passed away from the coronavirus.

Sixty-five-year-old Jesse “Jay” Taken Alive was hospitalized in late October and died Monday, according to his brother, Virgil Taken Alive.

According to an obituary, his 64-year-old wife Cheryl Taken Alive died Nov. 11.

Jesse Taken Alive won a seat on the tribal council in 1991 and spent 24 years in tribal government, serving as its chairman from 1993 to 1997.

He taught Lakota culture and language at a school in McLaughlin until he became ill.