Shepherd performed the women’s jingle dress dance, a healing dance, during the seventh annual Ojibwe Language Pow Wow in Snyder-Phillips Hall Auditorium on Saturday.

“The dance is associated with water and the healing of the earth,” she said. “Sometimes people ask me to dance for someone who is ill.”

Traditional American Indian dances such as the jingle dance have only recently been featured during Ojibwe language weekend.

The weekend consisted of a language quiz bowl until the addition of the powwow four years ago, said Mindy Morgan, an assistant professor of anthropology.

Morgan has been involved with Ojibwe language weekend since its 2001 debut thanks to Helen Roy, a faculty member in the American Indian Studies Program.

Roy narrated the powwow in Ojibwe, her first language. Captions in English were projected onto a screen behind the dancers throughout the powwow.

“It was Helen’s idea to have a powwow that was exclusively in the language,” Morgan said. “Most of the area powwows are in English. We wanted to create an environment that was entirely in Ojibwe.”

One local community member who got involved with Ojibwe language weekend is 11-year-old Aanzhenii Bigjohn.

Bigjohn, a Lansing resident, performed a hoop dance during the powwow using six bright pink hoops about half the size of standard hula hoops. The dance uses the six hoops to create visual shapes using her arms and legs.

“There are community dance troupes, but most people just learn the dances growing up at the powwows,” Morgan said.