Caption Reads: Tlingit baskets, such as these above, are all made from thin strands of split spruce roots and dyed grasses. They were used for storage and berry picking. To obtain the desired colors, various natural dyes were used. Black was made from a mixture of mud from sulfur springs and hemlock bark boiled in salt water. For red, the Tlingits steeped grass stems in an alderwood bowl containing urine. Yellow was obtained by soaking grass in a solution of moss and water, while blue-green was created by boiling hemlock bark and iron oxide in urine. They often created these baskets while it was raining, otherwise their materials would dry out.