How did native Americans and pioneers drink water with micro-organisms in it without getting sick?

Question

No matter how pure spring water appears to us - we still can not drink it - wondering how the pioneers did it.

Answer 1

Same way the Mexicans drink water in Mexico when it makes Americans sick. They grow up with the water and their bodies have adapted to it.

Answer 2

1. Water was cleaner. Just think what the industrial revolution as done to the air, then apply it to water. When it rains, all that junk is washed out of the air and into the water. Why do you think lawns are greener after a half-hour of rain as opposed to all-day watering by sprinkler systems? Because rain is washing nutrients (especially nitrogen) out of the air. But not everything that the rain washes into the garden is good, so it gets filtered through the soil and collects in groundwater.

2. Whatever was contaminating the water, the natives had become accustomed or even immune to, because they and the generations before had been drinking the same thing for centuries. This is why Americans get sick from Mexican water and Mexicans don't, because they're used to the germs in the water. If they (be "they" natives or Mexicans) did get sick, it was probably because something had stirred the sediments. Big storms like hurricanes are great for making waters toxic, but even flood-producing thunderstorms can do that, or in areas of earthquakes and volcanoes, those events release gases and other toxins that directly contaminate the water or cause chemical reactions with something else in the water, making it toxic.

3. About dysentary, cholera, typhoid, and other illnesses and diseases like them...these were native in Europe, settlers brought the germs with them. And if they'd been in Europe, in an environment to which their immune systems were accustomed, they wouldn't have had such problems. When the immune system is stressed by a new environment, then even things it's immune to can make it deteriorate. The reason these illnesses were so detrimental to the native populations is because they weren't immune to them, their systems had never met such germs as these, and not knowing how to treat the illness, it ran rampant until it wiped out every suseptible person within reach.

4. Now for Giardia...it's probably true that this micro-organizm wasn't as prevalent in ancient waters as it is today, but it was there...just in smaller amounts that a person who's used to "drinking this critter" can handle without becoming ill. Today, because we have all kinds of treatments and filtering systems for our waters, we're not immune to the effects of giardia, and it makes us sick. Also, the vast amounts of contaminents in the waters make an ideal growth medium for giardia...they live on the yuckies in the water.

Answer 3

Well, they did get sick. And you can drink spring water without getting sick assuming it's clear. Lots of wells tap into springs and the water is safe to drink. The Indians and the pioneers used common sense too, like drinking up stream from the herd and things like that.

Answer 4

Unfortunately, our early forefathers died at young ages from things we only hear about. Life was short. Native Americans knew not to drink still water and often got moisture from other sources. The white settlers and pioneers died by the scores from many water born bacteria.

Answer 5

I think a large number of pioneers died. The Indians had an advantage in the form of adaptation: either they had been living with natural hazards for so long that thier gene pool became less suceptible to those hazards (contaminated water) or the surviving adults had learned enough to tell thier kids what not to drink. It comes to the same.

Answer 6

Some locations used cysterns to collect rain water, which is fairly pure.

Many did die of water carrying diseases. And some springs had poisonous chemicals in them.

Some people did not drink water but drank beer or wine or whiskey or bottled drinks instead. Not a real good solution but they did get some water that way.

Answer 7

They did get sick, giardia (beaver fever) for instance was perhaps the greatest killer of the early mountain men. However I believe a healthy digestive tract one that had not been exposed to alcohol or anti biotics and has been given a diet high in active enzymes from more natural foods(meaning fresher and rawer) has a higher success rate against amoebas moving through the intestinal wall into the blood stream.

Answer 8

I've drank water from a spring. Dad bottled the stuff in gallon jugs and brought it home. We were living out in the sticks and our well was full of garbage and needed to be drilled deeper. I went and saw where he was getting the stuff from, d*mn that water was cold.

The adults didn't generally get sick because they were exposed to all the stuff in the water as children. Remember anyone mentioning the high rate of mortality of infants and small children way back when? Tainted water was one of the causes.

Our water has been artificially fertilized with our waste products and seepage of household chemicals and industrial/agricultural waste, producing artificially high concentrations of wee beasties.

Answer 9

What Did Native Americans Drink

Answer 10

My Daughter and I had recently gotten sick from the Hoosick Falls,NY town water.Giardia (Beaver Fever) My baby almost died,I ended up with a $2,200.00 Dr. + Hospital bill.The town refused to pay it,I was a home owner and a tax payer there too.I payed them for a safe water supply,but we got protozoa instead.If its untreated, Giardia is terminal.Thank You Hoosick Falls,you bunch of inbreds!