Conifers cover over 50 percent of southeast Alaska. Western hemlock and Sitka spruce are the most abundant. The Sitka spruce, Alaska's state tree, grows to 225 feet in height and to eight feet in diameter, and it can live to be 700 years old.

Tlingit women devised a technique for weaving containers and hats from the roots of the Sitka spruce tree. Both women and men wore this type of common work hat, particularly for canoe travel.

Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) root, cedar?; H 22.0 x D 44.0 cm; 3178-123a