About the "Homeland Security - Fighting Terrorism Since 1492" Shirts

Lately there have been many questions about the birth of the Homeland Security shirt. We recall one or two very similar shirt designs in the early 70's after AIM's experience at Wounded Knee. The present shirt came about, back in the first few days of the Bush administration's use of the phrase "Homeland Security". It came together online. Seems that a few of us, quite a few, kind of came up with the idea at the same time, perhaps remembering the earlier shirts. Maybe the seed was planted like this in a few heads at once...and then others fed the idea, tweaked it and grew it.

Coyote's Corner has been involved with this shirt since the summer of 2002. We were selling shirts that were one-screen prints. We were buying them from a guy in the southwest. (We're in RI) He said he was making them in his garage. I wanted the shirts to be more detailed and I wanted more than this very basic print. It was also very expensive to pay for shipping. All in all, we were paying big bucks for the shirts. The person we were getting them from also wanted us to buy his other shirts....so he would send 24 Homeland Security shirts and 150 other shirts that we couldn't sell and didn't want. We would end up sending the shirts back - at our expense. We were selling these shirts here online and at powwows.

He and I talked and it was agreed that I would make them myself. So at the end of 2002 into the beginning of 2003, we were printing Homeland Security. When the Narragansett Tribal Smoke Shop was raided in July, 2003, we went down to the rez with 100 free shirts that we produced. We replaced the picture of Geronimo and his relations with the words "WE SUPPORT THE NARRAGANSETT TRIBE   JULY 14, 2003". The tribe ended up making thousands on their own. When we went to the rally the tribe held to protest the raid, everyone was wearing them! It was great!

We here at Coyote's Corner continued to work on the quality of the print. What we were getting was better than what we had been getting, but not as good as we knew they could be. We ended up going through four or five screenprinters before we found a screenprinter with integrity, talent, patience and a real eye for quality. We have sent the guy in the southwest a lot of business. He's working with at least two retailers that are larger than we are. We aren't buying from him, but he's doing better for having known us.

Along the way, we spoke to someone in the entertainment industry. She's both smart and successful. She asked if the shirt was under copyright.

We searched and it wasn't listed. We decided to copyright it. We wanted to so we could always to be able to print it. Frankly, we don't care much who else is making it....as long as no one stops us from making it. The only company we felt had questionable legitimacy in producing them was Cafe Press...for no other reason than they smell of corporatocracy to us. Our response is to compete by making a better product.

ONE CANNOT REGISTER COPYRIGHT ON THIS SHIRT! We know. We tried to three times. The photograph belongs to a private party. You need their permission to reproduce it. We got that permission in writing when we bought a high quality photoprint of the original plate. The copyright office states there is insufficient original content to copyright the shirt design. So....here's what I'm saying. No one owns this design. If you want to and you feel like it....go ahead and make it. If you want one with all the kinks ironed out, one of detail and quality....buy it here. We have them ready to ship.

	Please add us to your favorites: Bookmark our site! Wholesale Orders Welcome	Coyote's Corner 500 Waterman Ave. East Providence, R.I. 02914	(401) 438-7678 (401) 438-1992 Fax	Copyright 1997 Coyote's Corner A woman owned company A minority owned company