Jim Tweto nació el 26 de noviembre de 1954 en Wichita, Kansas, Estados Unidos. Estuvo casado con Ferno Tweto. Murió el 16 de junio de 2023 en Alaska, Estados Unidos.
Built fishing boats in the 1980s naming his company Gussik Ventures in which gussik means "white person" in the Eskimo language. His boats were adopted by the locals and he built nearly three-quarters of the fishing boats in the region.