Tara Sweeney calls the Arctic home and says the needs of people in the Arctic are the guiding light in her political career. Some North Slope and Northwest Arctic residents have a range of views on her policy ideas.
Tara Katuk Mac Lean Sweeney said she was raised in Utqiagvik, as well as Noorvik, Unalakleet, Bethel and Wainwright. Living on the cusp of oil development on the North Slope, her family didn’t get their first flush toilet until Sweeney was 16.
“Growing up without those entities that so many people outside take for granted helped me understand the need for why our communities need rural sanitation and healthy access to drinking water,” Sweeney said. “My perspective is shaped by my experiences in rural Alaska and that perspective really is the backbone to my leadership style and the focus. My campaign is focused on three areas: a robust economy, a strong labor force and healthy communities.”
Sweeney is among 48 candidates running for Alaska’s U.S. House seat in a special election to replace the late Congressman Don Young. According to her Anchorage Daily News’ Q&A responses, Sweeney has a vision to promote development of natural resources, maximize the state’s strategic location in the interest of national security and advance infrastructure that’s necessary for remote Alaska communities.
“She is the best person for the job,” said Kenny Gallahorn from Kotzebue.
“She definitely climbed up the ladder for our Inuit,” Robin Mongoyak from Utqiagvik said. “She’s candidate-worthy, I think. Extensive knowledge by now.”
In the region heavily affected by climate change, not everyone supports Sweeney’s idea to promote resource development. Kaktovik resident Robert Thompson said that oil being extracted contributes to the amount of carbon dioxide put into the atmosphere, the temperatures rising and ice melting.
“I think the development is very detrimental: We have climate change like you wouldn’t believe here,” Thompson said about the North Slope communities. “I’m all for doing something to minimize the effects of climate change, and I don’t see anything on her agenda nearly close to that.”
While resource development can strengthen the labor force and drive investment into the state – other priorities of Sweeney’s campaign – Thompson argued that “people want jobs, but there’s more to life than just having a job.”
“I mean, we’ve got to live up here,” he said.
A life-long Alaska resident from Palmer, Lorali Simon, originally met Sweeney at a Resource Development Council conference. Simon said that Sweeney’s experience and expertise in developing Alaska’s natural resources makes her “uniquely qualified to ensure the environment and human health are protected.”
“She understands how important development is to sustain our economy,” she said, “but not when environmental impacts cannot be mitigated, or human health protected.”
Besides serving in various leadership positions such as the Arctic Economic Council, Ted Stevens Foundation and the Alaska Federation of Natives, Sweeney was the first Alaska Native Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior and the second woman to be confirmed for the position.
Creating space for herself in places that lack diversity can be a challenge, she said, but she feels capable of taking it and motivated to educate leaders across the country about Alaska Native people’s priorities.
“I credit the will and the sort of stamina to withstand those types of situations to the upbringing that I had in Alaska’s Arctic,” she said. “There’s an obligation to ensure that those with whom I interact or do business understand why we are who we are as people.”
Sweeney grew up with her parents and a brother, spending a lot of time outdoors, “connected to the land and the sea and all the bounties that they offered to fill (their) freezer.” She also learned from a young age the importance of Inupiaq values – humility, compassion, conflict resolution and humor – “just always instilling our Inupiaq values to use them as a guide. If you stay true to them, they will guide you in the right direction.”
Helen Simmonds from Utqiagvik lived in the same community as Sweeney and said she observed tidbits of her childhood and young adulthood.
“She has always had the drive to succeed in all that is required of her, focused, and has deep love for people around her,” Simmonds said. “She was taught at an early age how to serve others successfully and has shown those attributes throughout her lifetime.”
The experience of living in various Alaska communities can help Sweeney represent Alaska without compromising Alaska values and unique way of life, Simon said.
“Alaska is at a crossroads. We are caught in the middle of protecting our heritage – the old Alaska that is filled with promise and adventure, and the inevitability of modernization and evolution,” Simon said. “As our first congresswoman, Tara Sweeney will balance history and tradition with progress and expansion.”
While Sweeney was in Ipalook Elementary School, she said she learned about opportunities available through Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, and that’s what planted the seeds for her future career. After graduating from Barrow High School and then Cornell University, she moved home in the winter of 1995 and started working for ASRC. Since then, she has been moving around the state and the country, living in Anchorage and Washington, D.C. Sweeney currently calls Girdwood home where she resides with her husband and two children.
Whenever she is away from home, she said she tries to be able to bring traditional foods “to keep (herself) grounded” as well as to visit home regularly to reconnect with family, friends and community. But traveling and relocating for work is something she said she sees as a great way to make sure Alaska Native voices are heard across the country.
“What takes place in Washington, D.C., impacts what happens all the way in our most remote villages,” Sweeney said. “The policies that are set by congress or the regulations that are implemented by the executive branch impact our daily lives on whether or not we can proceed with development projects, on whether or not we can build playgrounds in our communities or roads between our communities, and whether or not we have access to federal lands for hunting, and fishing, and gathering. … It’s extremely important that we have a voice in that process.”
