Tara MacLean Sweeney (born July 28, 1973) is an Iñupiaq American businesswoman and former government official who served as assistant secretary of the interior for Native American affairs from July 2018 to January 2021. Sweeney previously served in Alaska Governor

Frank Murkowski Frank Hughes Murkowski (born March 28, 1933) is an American politician and a member of the Republican Party. He was a United States Senator from Alaska from 1981 until 2002 and the eighth governor of Alaska from 2002 until 2006. In his 2006 re ...

's cabinet.

Early life and education

A daughter of Bryan MacLean, a teacher, and

Eileen MacLean Eileen Panigeo MacLean (June 12, 1949 – April 24, 1996) was an American politician and educator who served as a member of the Alaska House of Representatives from 1989 to 1996. Early life and education MacLean was born in Utqiaġvik, Alask ...

(née Panigeo), who served as a Democratic member of the

Alaska Legislature The Alaska Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is a bicameral institution consisting of the 40-member Alaska House of Representatives (lower house) and the 20-member Alaska Senate (upper house). There are 40 Hou ...

. Of Iñupiaq descent, she is a member of the Native Village of Barrow Inupiat Traditional Government. One of her ancestors translated the Bible into the Inupiaq language.Steve Straehley and David Wallechinsk
Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs: Who Is Tara Sweeney?
Retrieved January 17, 2019. Sweeney grew up in the towns of Wainwright,

Bethel Bethel ( he, בֵּית אֵל, translit=Bēṯ 'Ēl, "House of El" or "House of God",Bleeker and Widegren, 1988, p. 257. also transliterated ''Beth El'', ''Beth-El'', ''Beit El''; el, Βαιθήλ; la, Bethel) was an ancient Israelite sanct ...

Unalakleet Unalakleet ( ; ik, Uŋalaqłiq, ; russian: Уналаклит) is a city in Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States, in the western part of the state. At the 2010 census the population was 688, down from 747 in 2000. Unalakleet is known in the ...

, Utqiagvik in rural Alaska. In 1991, she graduated from

Barrow High School Barrow High School is a public high school in Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow), Alaska, United States, operated by the North Slope Borough School District. As of the 2016–2017 school year, the school had 232 students. Athletics Football A high ...

. Sweeney attended

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

, where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial and labor relations in 1998.

Career

Business career in Alaska

For almost two decades she has worked for

Arctic Slope Regional Corporation Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, or ASRC, is one of 13 Alaska Native Regional Corporations created under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA) in settlement of aboriginal land claims. ASRC was incorporated in Alaska on June 22, ...

(ASRC) with subsidiaries, in various positions, the last being as Executive Vice President of External Affair where she served as the company's spokesperson. In this capacity, she has advocated for opening the

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR or Arctic Refuge) is a national wildlife refuge in northeastern Alaska, United States on traditional Gwich'in lands. It consists of in the Alaska North Slope region. It is the largest national wildlife ...

for oil drilling. She has a birthright co-ownership in the company. She started a one-year term as co-chair of the Alaska Federation of Natives in October 2013.Alaska Native executive Tara Sweeney named to top Bureau of Indian Affairs job
Indianz.com. October 17, 2017. Retrieved January 25, 2019. From 2015 to 2017, Sweeney served as chair of the

Arctic Economic Council The Arctic Economic Council (AEC) is an independent international business membership organisation representing companies that work with and within the Arctic. The AEC advocates sustainable economic development in the region and represents a bus ...

as a representative of the

Inuit Circumpolar Council The Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) ( kl, Inuit Issittormiut Siunnersuisooqatigiiffiat), formerly Inuit Circumpolar Conference, is a multinational non-governmental organization (NGO) and Indigenous Peoples' Organization (IPO) representing the 1 ...

Political activity

In 2003, Sweeney joined the cabinet of

Alaska Governor The governor of Alaska (Iñupiaq language, Iñupiaq: ''Alaaskam kavanaa'') is the head of government of Alaska. The governor is the chief executive of the state and is the holder of the highest office in the executive branch of the government as ...

as Special Assistant for Rural Affairs and Education. During the

2014 United States Senate election in Alaska The 2014 United States Senate election in Alaska took place on November 4, 2014, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Alaska, concurrently with the election of the governor of Alaska, as well as other elections ...

, Sweeney served as co-chair of Republican

Dan Sullivan Dan, Danny, or Daniel Sullivan may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Daniel J. Sullivan (born 1940), American film and theater director * Daniel G. Sullivan, American screenwriter * Dan Sullivan (musician), indie rock musician * Dan Panic, Amer ...

's Senate campaign, stating that the Democratic Senate Majority "feverishly worked on an agenda that stifled growth and economic opportunities in Alaska". As Assistant Secretary, Sweeney wrote an op-ed endorsing Sullivan's reelection in

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

, arguing that Sullivan's opponent Al Gross supported "national Democrats' own radical, anti-Alaska agenda". In 2022, Sweeney announced her run for Alaska's at-large congressional district special election after the death of

Don Young Donald Edwin Young (June 9, 1933 – March 18, 2022) was an American politician from the state of Alaska. At the time of his death, he was the longest-serving Republican in congressional history, having been the U.S. representative for for ...

. In June, she finished fifth in the 50-person at-large primary, with the top four advancing to a runoff. When the third-placer, Independent Al Gross dropped out, the question of her moving to fourth arose. A case for her inclusion brought by her supporters lost and she did not protest her elimination. Sweeney announced a week after the primary election she was suspending her campaign after not "seeing a path to victory."

Bureau of Indian Affairs

In October 2017, Sweeney was nominated by President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

as assistant secretary for Indian affairs. The

Senate Committee on Indian Affairs The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is a committee of the United States Senate charged with oversight in matters related to the American Indian, Native Hawaiian, and Alaska Native peoples. A Committee on Indian Affairs existed from 1820 to 19 ...

unanimously recommended a full vote in the Senate, and she was unanimously confirmed in June 2018.Daniel Kirby (June 28, 2018
Senate unanimously confirms Tara Sweeney for Interior Department post
Ktuu.com. Retrieved January 25, 2019 During her confirmation hearing, she pledged to recuse herself from issues involving the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation. She is the first

Alaska Native Alaska Natives (also known as Alaskan Natives, Native Alaskans, Indigenous Alaskans, Aboriginal Alaskans or First Alaskans) are the indigenous peoples of Alaska and include Iñupiat, Yupik, Aleut, Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and a numbe ...

and second woman to oversee the Bureau of Indian Affairs. As Assistant Secretary, she faced calls for her resignation over the inclusion of for-profit Alaska Native owned corporations to directly compete with funding set aside for native governments dealing with the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

crisis. On April 28, 2020 a federal court blocked the inclusion of Alaska Native owned corporations from receiving federal stimulus money earmarked for tribal governments. The Supreme Court head the case on appeal and reversed the lower courts decision, agreeing that the 12 Alaska Native Regional Corporations were indeed eligible for the CARES Act funding along with the tribes.

Personal life

Sweeney is married to Kevin Sweeney, a former aide to Senator

Lisa Murkowski Lisa Ann Murkowski ( ; born May 22, 1957) is an American attorney and politician serving as the senior United States senator for Alaska, having held that seat since 2002. Murkowski is the second-most senior Republican woman in the Senate, after S ...

. The couple have two children and live in Anchorage. She had a role in the 2011 film ''

On the Ice ''On the Ice'' is a 2011 American drama film written and directed by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean. The film is set in (and was shot on location in) Utqiagvik, Alaska, MacLean's home town, and follows two Iñupiaq teenagers who, while on a seal hunt, ac ...

'', and their son Ahmaogak had a role in the 2012 film ''

Big Miracle ''Big Miracle'' is a 2012 drama film directed by Ken Kwapis, and stars Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski. The film is based on Tom Rose's 1989 book '' Freeing the Whales'', which covers Operation Breakthrough, the 1988 international effort to ...

''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sweeney, Tara 1973 births 20th-century American businesswomen 20th-century Native American women 20th-century Native Americans 21st-century American businesswomen 21st-century American women politicians 21st-century Native American politicians 21st-century Native American women Alaska Republicans Businesspeople from Alaska Candidates in the 2022 United States House of Representatives elections Cornell University alumni Inupiat people Living people Native American women in politics People from Utqiagvik, Alaska Trump administration personnel United States Bureau of Indian Affairs personnel 21st-century American politicians