Assume a full out PAW.
How would you get clean drinking water, store it, and carry it?

I need to find out how the Plains Indians did it considering my location....

I already store my water, 500 gallons of it in blue 50 gallon drums. Otherwise, I'd carry a water filter with me with a few as backup. Water preparedness is fairly easy.

Some pretty good info here:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=51917

Look into solar stills.

I would think the native americans would have used the boil method for the most part. Using clay pots or animal byproducts, fashion a water vessel. Fill with water. Drop super heated rocks into it to boil. Of course this wouldn't filter it at all. But we have modern ways to do that which work pretty good You could always make a layered filter with sand, gravel, and charcoal for that.

I just went through OK. There was water everywhere. Unreal compared to my location. My thoughts about it were all I would need is a couple of good filters, some storage, and some more filters. Your problem won't be finding it, I guess depending on what part of the state you are in, but making it drinkable.

Except I want to know how to make it over when the PAW comes and there is no more industrial production.... As in, finite water filters and we need to go Adam and Eve on this thing and re-start the population, and eventually manufactured things are going to run out and we'll need to start over from the ground up. Does that make more sense?

I know I can buy filters, use bleach, etc.... but without all those, as in you wake up naked in the middle of the forest or as in nuclear holocaust has destroyed 3/4 of the planet and you are one of the lucky, radiation free ones.... and you have to figure the stuff out all on your own....

I'd boil water with fire.

Well, for filtering water you can start with an Indian well. You create those by digging a pit near a creek the water will filter through from the water stream and collect in the pit. Then wait for any sediment to settle to the bottom. That should get the big chunks out then you can run it through a cloth or similar membrane.

This is where a home made filter could come in handy. The one with layers of grass, sand and charcoal.

After that I would still boil the water. It all sounds like real project but with all the contamination in water these days it is still prudent.

Look up slow sand filter.

navarre1095,

Thank you for a sensible post. I really appreciate the thread you linked to also. Water solutions are underestimated and should be a top priority.

Biggest difference in techniques of the past used today is the level of contaminants in ground water, especial in what type of disaster happens in the area or upstream from your collection point. Even rainwater could be bad, that's why PAW will suck, but we do our best.

Observation is your best tool. If a plant isn't dieing you could possibly still drink from it. Follow animals to safer collecting areas.

Other ideas is condensation technique where you boil the water and collect through condensation on a cool dome. This is a slow way to get usable water out of salt water.

Always boil.

Fire good!

Sig-worthy.

Seriously, I think if it comes down to that, dukman's advice on sand/charcoal filtration would probably be your best bet. That, and boiling. Between the two, you ought to be able to remove most of the bad stuff out of the water.

In my area, finding the water is the greatest concern.

Deadpan win.

I'd open up the well that's capped with concrete about twenty feet away. And boil it with fire.

I would try something, likely digging a step well,
if I got sick from the water,
then I would try something more.

I'll use the nice year-round stream at the corner of my property, run it into this great-big tank here, and run it through the Berkey if it looks green.

Boiled water and a copper still. Seems like that'd be the cleanest way to go about it, although probably not necessary beyond just boiling.

be careful with copper with a still, they work perfect with alcohol, but the copper can leach out and poison you if used with water, stainless is much better for water.

Why do you want to waste all your fuel doing something that can be done biologically? A Slow Sand Filter can be built for next to nothing and will give you the disinfection/filtration that you need to survive.

http://www.slowsandfilter.org/

Slow sand filters and/or solar stills. Solar stills can be made with nothing but plastic sheeting and a hole in the ground. If you do it that way, the optimum size is around three feet in diameter. If you need more water, dig more stills that size instead of making a bigger one. There are more complex solar still designs involving frames and pipes and so forth, too.