What were the dye sources for early American rugs?  How did they manage to make these beautiful, bright and long lasting colors before these wonders of chemistry could be found in stores? I found this information in a book published in 1950 by Estelle H. Ries, titled American Rugs.
  “The most usual dye sources were roots, vegetable, barks, flowers, fruits and berries. Red dyes were customarily derived from cranberries, beets, madder root and logwood. Pokeberry juice gave a crimson color. A certain desirable pink hue could be had by scraping dust from old soft brick in some built-up sections of New Amsterdam. Yellow was made by boiling onion skins with alum, and there were other ways.  Goldenrod flowers could be pressed for juice and, when indigo was available, could be mixed with it to make green.  Blueberries, the bark of the red oak or hickory and all sorts of other growing products were enlisted for the dye brew.” For those of you interested in learning more about rug dyeing in bygone days of yore, here is an excellent book, part of a series, that should answer most of your questions:Rug Dyes In History and Archaeology .  There are also a number of books at the kindle store– inexpensive ones– explaining natural dye making.