In 1607, when the English made their first permanent settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, the area of the current state was occupied by numerous tribes of Algonquian, Siouan, and Iroquoian linguistic stock. Captain John Smith made contact with numerous tribes, including the Wicocomico. More than 30 Algonquian tribes were associated with the politically powerful Powhatan Confederacy (alternately Powhatan Chiefdom), whose homeland occupied much of the area east of the Fall Line along the coast. It spanned 100 by , and covered most of the tidewater Virginia area and parts of the Eastern Shore, an area they called "Tsenacommacah". Each of the more than 30 tribes of this confederacy had its own name and chief ("weroance" or "werowance", female "weroansqua"). All paid tribute to a paramount chief ("mamanatowick") Powhatan, whose personal name was "Wahunsenecawh". Succession and property inheritance in the tribe was governed by a matrilineal kinship system and passed through the mother's line.