About ABLA

Board of Directors

Amy Arrendell

My paternal grandmother helped to start a museum of the Native American in Ponca City, Oklahoma, where I was born.

She was invited to ceremony by the chief of the Ponca tribe there.  This made a deep impression on me even though, as a child, I did not know how to talk with my grandmother about it.

As an adult, I have always been happiest in nature, hiking, gardening, camping and just being.  Living in the North Carolina mountains without electricity or running water where my son was born allowed me to connect more deeply with nature. In the 1980’s I started learning about the original people and their lives, then and now, in connection with Earth and all beings.  I continue to learn from Indigenous wisdom and share with my church, St James Episcopal in Black Mountain. 

My career was in education and I helped start the Asheville Waldorf School over 10 years ago.

George Brosi

George and his family lived near the Qualla Boundary thirtyfive years ago. His five youngest children attended Smoky Mountain Elementary School which was 40% Cherokee. As editor of Appalachian Heritage magazine, his Fall 2009 special Cherokee  issue featured two dozen Eastern Band contributors.

He attended the Beyond Land Acknowledgment conference in 2023 and the Cherokee retreat in 2024 and 2025. In 2024, he offered a six-week continuing education course called The Cherokee Speak for Themselves featuring Eastern Band presenters. 

Jim Cavener

Born and raised in the American Southwest I was early acquainted with the Tongva indigenous peoples of Turtle Island. Two degrees in American History gave focus to the atrocities of our European colonizing of the entire continent.  Moving to Asheville 47 years ago brought me into contact with fellow members of WCQS and ACLU boards, and Yale alumni who are Cherokee Eastern Band enrolled members. I wear a Second Mesa Hopi renowned silversmith’s ring for the last seventy-some years as a symbol of solidarity with these nations.

Jane Goldthwait

Attended September 2023 Workshop at UNCA for Colonizers Relationship with Cherokees.

Attended March 2024 Weeklong Workshop with Lianna Costantino on Cherokees.

Board member and former secretary of Alliance for Beyond Land Acknowledgement.

Representative to Alliance for Beyond Land Acknowledgement from Swannanoa Valley Friends Meeting.

Attended Workshops in New Hampshire about Native Nations that have and/or are living in the area.

Volunteered with the Sierra Club in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to help the Dine or Navajo Nation work against another coal fired power plant.

Taught Special Education in Ohio, New York, and North Carolina.

Have studied Spanish, volunteered in schools worked with indigenous weavers, and lived in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, a Sister City of Asheville.

John Huie

John Huie is a retired educator and former headmaster of an anthropologically oriented private high school in Sedona, Arizona. There he organized extended living-learning experiences for students in collaboration with Zuni, Hopi and Navajo families.  John has three sons and one daughter. His daughter, now 53 years old, is of the Cahuilla Tribe and lives in southern California. 

As director of the North Carolina Outward Bound in the 1990’s, John formed a partnership with Sequoyah Trueblood, youth organizer in Cherokee, to offer scholarships to Cherokee teenagers for Outward Bound courses. John, a member of Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church in Asheville, is active in social justice initiatives.  He and his wife, Jaan Ferree, have lived in Asheville since the early 1980’s.  Jaan and John have an abiding interest in effective alliance-building with the Cherokee people. 

Pat Johnson

By happenstance, I attended a presentation by Mark Charles (Diné) in 2015.  His talk about the Doctrine of Discovery, Manifest Destiny and a shining light on the hill showed me a history I had never heard. 

In 2018 I attended a conference, Truth & Healing: Quakers Seeking Right Relationship with Indigenous Peoples.  I made commitments to build relationships, investigate and research history, practice humility and learn about Quaker Indian Boarding Schools.  I helped organize a conference, Beyond Land Acknowledgement: Toward Reparations and Healing in September 2023.  It was not to be a one-day event.  So, The Alliance for Beyond Land Acknowledgement was born. I’m committed to do all I can to reach our mission, vision and goals.

Steve Livingston

Like most white boys in 1950’s America, Steve was indoctrinated to believe that in the game of “Cowboys and Indians,” the Indians were the bad guys. As an adult his skepticism and curiosity led to a better understanding of Eastern Woodland civilizations and awareness of how colonizer culture encouraged dehumanization of pre-Columbian peoples to justify wholesale slaughter and appropriation of land and resources.

In 2015 Steve learned about the Doctrine of Discovery, and how these Papal documents sanctified colonization, enslavement, and genocide. Since then he has become much more deliberate in focusing time and effort to learn about and advocate for the people whose land we who call ourselves Americans occupy, culminating in his involvement in creating and sustaining the Alliance for Beyond Land Acknowledgement.

Maggie Moon O’Neil

Maggie retired as a Director of Continuing Education in the Schools of Social Work and Education for Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA, where, for nearly 30 years, she led teams of trainers to educate professionals about people with disabilities. As a Quaker activist, Maggie also worked to educate the community about peace and non-violence.

As grandmother of bi-racial children, she has personally experienced racism and its effects on all of us.  Settling into Western North Carolina in 2016, Maggie soon recognized the need to become Allies of our neighbors, the Cherokee. She co-organized the Conference, Beyond Land Acknowledgement, and serves as Co-Chair of the Alliance for Beyond Land Acknowledgement, which grew out of that Conference.

Larry Stern

I was born in Newark, Ohio, within a couple miles of the Moundbuilders Park. As a child, I enjoyed a number of family gatherings on the grounds of this park, and have been back recently to see the improvements and protection provided at this site. I completed my doctorate at Chapel Hill in Political Science in 1967, and joined the faculty at Mars Hill College (now University) in 1971. I met and married a young faculty member who was born and raised in Western North Carolina, and all four of whose grandparents had family traditions and some documentation of ancestors who had married native women, of more than one native tribe.

For ten years during my time as a faculty member at Mars Hill I taught a course on North Carolina History for prospective public school teachers, and had several members of the Eastern Band in my classes. I also cooperated with a member of the Eastern Band on some political issues in the 1970’s, and later on service projects through volunteer work as members of Kiwanis International. I also had the opportunity to visit villages in the Qualla Boundary as a volunteer with the Western North Carolina Development Association and see the results of beautification and community development efforts in some of these communities.

Approximately a decade ago, I was a part of multiple visits to historic Cherokee sites and presentations by tribe members organized by my church, Grace Covenant Presbyterian in Asheville. In June of 2024 I was asked to serve as a representative of the church on the Board of ABLA.

Shannon Swimmer

Shannon Swimmer (she/her) was born and raised on her ancestral homelands of Cherokee, NC where she currently resides with her family in the Aniwodihi (Painttown) community.

She returned home after obtaining her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Kansas School of Law. She is a licensed attorney in the state of North Carolina and served as Associate Judge at the Cherokee Tribal Court prior to becoming the Director of the Western Carolina University Cherokee Center. In addition to her law degree, Shannon earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Kansas and a Master of Science degree in Human Resource Management from Western Carolina University.

Shannon has devoted her professional career to assisting tribes and tribal entities, working in various capacities and gaining experience in tribal law, fiscal management, human resource management, grant writing and management, alternative dispute resolution including peacemaking and talking circles, and providing training and technical assistance.

Born into a family of Cherokee artisans, and inspired by her grandmothers, Louise Bigmeat Maney and Amanda Sequoyah Swimmer (both of whom were bestowed with the highest honor of being named Beloved Woman of the EBCI), Shannon is an advocate for the education and preservation of the Cherokee language, culture, and arts.

She is passionate about community involvement, being of service, and participating in cultural events, especially with family. She also prioritizes mental and physical health and enjoys meditating, reading, mountain biking, and trail running.