Male dancers brandishing ceremonial weapons stomped and bobbed, re-enacting stories of battles, hunts and spirits at Crisler Arena on Saturday. Their colorful regalia, covered with feathers and streamers, represented battle dress. One man wore a wolf skin with its jaw resting on top of his head.

The men were there to celebrate the Ann Arbor Pow Wow's 35th anniversary. The Pow Wow, a two-day festival of Native American song, dance and dress, has grown in size since its inception in the early 1970s. The first one was held on a field outside Ann Arbor in 1972. Subsequent events were held in small venues around the city until its growing size necessitated a larger site.

The event has been held in Crisler Arena for the last several years.

Event organizers expected 10,000 people to attend the Pow Wow this weekend.

American Culture lecturer Hap McCue, an elder in the Ojibwa Native American tribe, was there to kick it off with an invocation of the Great Spirit.

"We ask him to guide us, to be with us, to help us live right and straight," he said.

There was no script - the improvised prayer came from the heart, McCue said.

Pow Wow organizers invite people from all over the country to participate in what they call an intertribal "Dance for Mother Earth."

Most of the dancers participating in the Pow Wow were members of the Ojibwa, Odawa and Potawatomi tribes - the three parts of the Three Fires Confederacy - but the Pow Wow included dancers from dozens of tribes, said Priyanka Pathak, a University alum and member of the Pow Wow Committee.

Pathak said she has been involved with the Native American Student Association - a University student group - since she was a freshman at the University, even though she isn't Native American.

The dance competitions were in full swing Saturday afternoon in the stadium.

Several men sat shoulder-to-shoulder around a large hide drum at Crisler Arena on Saturday, pounding out steady rhythms while saying high-pitched chants.

Afterward, female dancers wearing colorful shawls praised Mother Earth.

One group of jingle dancers wore dresses adorned with small metal cones that jingled as they danced to the rhythm of the drums.

Sick people often ask for a jingle dance to be done on their behalf, said Marie Dreaver, a member of the Oneida and Odawa tribes and the head female dance judge of the Pow Wow.

"It's a healing dance," she said.

The jingle dresses covered in cones used to be called medicine dresses, she said.

Most dancers make their own regalia, a process Dreaver described as a full-time job. First, they pick out colored cloth. Dancers usually choose either all the primary colors or red, yellow, black and white - the four colors of the Medicine Wheel, a spiritual symbol used by the tribes that make up the Three Fires Confederacy.

Then the cloth is sewn in traditional patterns and bells are affixed.

Each dancer wore a number so the judges could identify them as they performed.

Judges watched the dancers and assigned points based on timing, style and regalia.

The competitions were also categorized by age - there was a performance group for children up to 6 years old and another for elderly dancers.

Performers said the dances are meant to represent one's personal spirituality and faith.

"You just feel it," Dreaver said. "Everyone's dance is their own individual thing." Dreaver first danced at the Pow Wow as a child. She continued dancing - first in the Traditional category, then in the Fancy category and most recently in the Jingle category - and creating her own regalia for more than 20 years.

Dreaver has taken a break from dancing at the Pow Wow because of time constraints, but she said she intends to begin dancing again as soon as she can.

"I've danced since I could walk," she said.