How do you find fresh drinking water in the wilderness?

Im very interested in survival, extreme survival, like canteen and a buckknife only survival. Where do you find fresh drinking water if you're in the mountains or jungle? Native Americans survived for thousands of years in the Americas, does anyone know what they did?How do you find fresh drinking water in the wilderness?
America wasn't polluted for thousands of years ;)

Rule of thumb my dad always taught me on wilderness treks...bring either a means of containing water so you can boil it for at least 8 minutes before drinking, or water purifying packets. ;) Fast flowing rivers or streams work well, morning dew on large leaves is good also (just make sure the leaf isn't poisonous). Rain water is already purified.
Wrong, rain water is not "pure" what ever it falls through and lands on is contaminated. Purifying packets only kill bactiria and don't remove chemicals and if it's bad for bugs it's bad for you. Use a good filter to be safe.

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How do you find fresh drinking water in the wilderness?
In modern times, I carry a water testing kit, when I am hunting/camping.back 40'ing. You can't be too careful when it comes to drinking water. Less than two hundred years ago, you didn't much have to worry about moving fresh water being contaminated.....



Common sense, I am sure. Don't drink from stagnant, non-moving pools. Don't drink from the inlets where algae washes in, or in places where fish/frogs spawn. And making sure you keep other activities far from your water source, like disposing of unusable animal corpse parts, fires, human waste. Common sense.
In a study of the water sources for wild-lands there was not any water considered totally safe to drink found in all of the USA. With that in mind finding fresh water is still as close as the nearest stream you just need to bring with you a water purification method. Boiling kills everything but doesn't remove the chemicals or debris, tablets again kill everything but don't remove debris and if it kills everything why drink more chemicals? The best choice then is a filtration system it removes the germs and bugs and most chemicals making the water "fresh" with out adding anything to the water. REI has a great article on how to choose the best water filter for your needs, I'll include it in the sources. I myself have a "First Need" water filter system been using that for well over 20 years now with no problems.
Early human populations died a lot from contaminated water. If you review the history of human population, you will find that the number of humans did not increase much until centralized agriculture, water treatment, and antibiotics were all developed.

For example, during 1,000 years from BC 2,000 to BC 1,000, the human population merely doubled from 27 to 50 million, about 2 times. However, in the 1,000 years from 1,000 AD to 2,000 AD, the human population increased from 400 million to 6 billion, about 12 times. The world population tripled, 3 times, in only the past 70 years, around the time that water treatment and antibiotics were developed. Population growth during the past century is nearly a straight vertical line, UPWARD!

If you have water treatment equipment, such as a filter, chemical, or light system, then it is easy to find potable water in designated wilderness areas with almost any watershed from surface water. Backpacker Magazine has done reviews on various water treatment systems for your consideration. You Tube also has water treatment reviews.
To add to the above, in survival situations, if you can start a fire, boil your water. A nasty diarrhea will be the last thing you want when lost in the wilderness.