Indian villages were owned in common. The hunting grounds, and pieces of cleared land used for the cultivation of corn, tobacco and vegetables belonged to the tribe. A warrior owned nothing except his garments, tomahawks, bows and arrows.
The Algonquians had no written laws. Their customs were handed down through the old men around the campfires from generation to generation. These unwritten laws were well-defined and worked in a positive and forceful way.
The tribes between the Rappahannock and the Potomac Rivers belonged to the Powhatan confederacy. Their language was a variety of the Delaware Indian language.
CAPTAIN SMITH VISITS THE NECK
It was bitterly cold, "with frost and snow," when Captain John Smith first saw the land between the Rappahannock and the Potomac Rivers.
Captain Smith's first visit to the Neck was not one of pleasure or exploration. He came as a captive of the Indian chief, Opechacanough.
It was in the winter of 1607-08. During that year Smith made "3. or 4. journies and discovered the people of Chickahamania." It was on the last of these "journies" that he was taken prisoner, and led about in triumph and exhibited to the tribes of the Tidewater region, from the James to the Potomac.
Smith was carried to Tophanocke, "a kingdome upon a River northward." This river was the Rappahannock. Here they stopped at the village of the Nantaughtacunds.
Smith and his captors may have sped swiftly and silently through the forest but when they approached a village a triumphal procession was formed which was marked by "a barbarous sort of pomp."
Captain Smith was guarded on either side by a savage who kept fast hold upon his wrist. Opechacanough moved in the middle of the column and the swords, guns and pistols which had been taken from Smith and his companions were borne before the Indian chief.