A first-person magazine article from Overland Monthly in which the author visits the mission village of San Fernando, California, in search of an authentic old Indian basket. Along the way a collector friend explains how to tell genuine old baskets from those made for sale, including dyes, uses and ornament. The author meets Juana, an aged Indian basket-weaver, who demonstrates coiled basket construction and talks about the baskets of her youth. Illustrated with photographs of baskets from the Jewett collection and the mission cloister.