Virtual Talking Circle: Dgwaget (Fall)

CPN Tribal members are invited to join our seasonal virtual talking circle. Our Fall Equinox talking circle will be held on September 19, 2024, at 7:30 p.m. CST.

The event will feature a presentation by Tribal member Kabl Wilkerson, which will be recorded, followed by a talking circle, which will not be recorded.

Kabl Wilkerson

Kabl Wilkerson (they/them) is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation (Bourassa & Muller families; Bear Clan) and is a doctoral candidate in the History Department at Harvard University.

Kabl’s scholarly interests examine the evolving contradictions in U.S Indian policy from the early nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries as shifting forms of imperial, state-building practices. Their dissertation highlights the imposition of federal definitions for tribal membership in federal Indian policy as an example of these practices, and notes the way in which foreign observers took stock of these developments, primarily in Germany, as a continuing example of U.S. imperialism. They received their B.A. from Texas Tech University in 2019 and their A.M. in History from Harvard University in 2023.

Kabl also works on Great Lakes Indian Removal policy, practice, and resistance for the D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies at the Newberry Library in Chicago and the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and maintains a collaborative, scholarly relationship with both institutions. They have produced maps on Great Lakes Indian Removal, treaty cessions, and historic Neshnabék village locations of Potawatomi homelands. In their free time, Kabl works on Bodéwadmik and Great Lakes Indian histories with other Neshnabé, non-Neshnabè, and non-native scholars, ranging from the early seventeenth to the mid-twentieth centuries.

Talking Circle Guidelines:

The talking circle, which is often used in Potawatomi and other tribal ceremonies, is a conversation method that ensures everyone’s voice can be heard. In a talking circle, only one person speaks at a time. There is no interrupting or agreement or disagreement. Only one person at a time has the floor to share their thoughts. Please know that if you don’t have anything to say, that is perfectly ok; you are empowered to say as much or as little as you’d like. Everyone else will focus on active listening.

In a ceremonial context, we’d be seated in a circle and pass an eagle feather or other object to our left to know who is speaking. In a virtual context, that isn’t possible in the same way. A moderator will post an order list in the chat box.

Participants are asked to make this virtual circle a place of respect by listening carefully and refraining from sharing any stories that are not yours after we wrap up. Stories stay, lessons leave.