Peveešeeva! Neso’eeo’e naheševe naa Vohpoomataneno naa Exovatove nahesta naa Tsehtsehstahste naa Sotaeeo’o.
Greetings! My name is Zhona Tang and I am an enrolled citizen of the Northern Cheyenne Nation, originally from the White River District (Busby, MT) of the Northern Cheyenne Reservation and currently residing in Billings, MT.
My culture and identity as a Cheyenne person inspires the art that I create, especially during my belt-making. I am a self-taught traditional regalia belt maker who comes from a family of generational regalia makers, pow wow dancers, event organizers, and feast makers. I found my passion and purpose in providing my family beautiful works of “spiritual armor” as they pray in the dancing circle. I was first influenced by the beautiful leatherworks of my late uncle Don Little Wolf, who traveled the world in the 1980s for his art. He was a great man and even taught non-Natives about our way of life. We hosted some French folk a couple summers in good ol’ Busby when I was young and thought it was so amazing that people all over the world would spend thousands of dollars to go to Paris, but these French folks in my living room thought they were in the most beautiful place in the world. They weren’t lying, so I told them “it’s the center of the universe.”
The regalia belt is the center of regalia, but also the individual. I hope to make belts that make you feel like the you’re in “center of the universe,” where beauty is all encompassing and you feel so at peace, the storms will go around you. This cultural art of regalia belt making allows dancers and citizens to express their identity as they pray in the circle, as they perform on stages or courts, and how they present themselves to the Creator and the rest of the world. It is an honor to make belts for the People. Thank you.