Native Americans from Eastern Prince William County

Native Americans from Eastern Prince William County. The King's Highway. , People have lived along Neabsco Creek and the Potomac River for thousands of years. Numerous different peoples likely lived here before European contact. By the 1500s, the Doeg tribe inhabited the area across the river in Maryland as well as the modern counties of Prince William and Fairfax in Virginia. One of their villages, Niopsco, was located near here. Easy access to water made travel and communication easier. Fishing the Potomac River and its tributaries became a main source of food alongside crops such as corn and squash., In 1608, the first recorded English explorers arrived in the area led by John Smith. Smith wrote that the natives here had their capital called Tauxenent on "Dogg's Island," modern day Mason Neck. As more English settlers came to this part of Virginia, the Doeg and English began to clash over rightful claims to the land. This came to a head in 1666 when the Virginia colony engaged in a full-fledged war against the Doeg. By 1670, most of the Doeg were driven from northern Virginia across the Potomac River to Maryland., [Captions:] , Village of Secoton , A village of the Secoton people of North Carolina in 1585, similar to what Doeg villages may have looked like. , Courtesy of the British Museum, John White the Manner of Their Fishing/Indians Fishing , The Doeg, like many of their Algonquian speaking neighbors, made most of their living on the water. , Courtesy of the British Museum