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The Interior Department Inspector General has launched a conflict-of-interest investigation into the senior official overseeing the distribution of $8 billion in coronavirus aid to tribes. Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney issued guidance that Alaska Native corporations—of which she is a shareholder and has deep personal ties to—would be eligible to receive substantial funding, depriving tribal governments of needed aid.
Alaska Native corporations were established in 1971 as for-profit organizations, owned by shareholders and governed by state law, but not formal tribal governments. One in particular, Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC), has extensive oil and gas operations and has long pushed to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where it holds mineral rights. According to press reports, ASRC is the wealthiest tribal entity that has applied for coronavirus funds. Sweeney is a shareholder of ASRC, and previously served as a top executive and lobbyist for the corporation, making more than $650,000 per year. Further, Sweeney's husband is a lobbyist for another Alaska Native corporation that quickly applied for coronavirus relief.
Tribes in the Lower 48 have been hard hit by the coronavirus, particularly in the Four Corners region, and have pushed for the swift distribution of funding. A broad coalition of tribal governments quickly sued to overturn Sweeney's interpretation, which could send up to half of all available funding to Alaska Native corporations, and demanded her resignation. A federal judge recently sided with the tribes, blocking Interior from distributing money to Alaska Native corporations.
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Tribal governments have already waited nearly six weeks for these badly needed resources. The Trump administration’s troubled handling of the distribution of Tribal government relief cries out for robust oversight as Indian Country is experiencing some of the worst impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
