Recreation of Totero (Tutelo) dwelling, at Explore Park near Roanoke
Those bands of earliest Virginians traveled constantly from hunting camp to hunting camp, leaving behind some archeological artifacts such as at Cactus Hill. After a short period of hunting, perhaps several days or weeks, the game in an area would be either harvested or wary. Easy-to-gather fruits and berries would have been picked as well. Then it was time to move on to another site, over a ridge into another valley where the hunting was easier and the natural resources could be harvested with less effort.
What makes a travelling band settle down for and entire season of the year in an established town, and then choose to stay in the same place year-round?
It's logical to assume that some hunting camps were revisited regularly because the hunting was good in that area. When camping, the natives would eat plants harvested from the area, or brought from the last camp. Seeds from plants that had been selected by the natives would be discarded in those hunting camps. (Ever eat every kernel in an ear of corn, or do you tend to leave a few on the cob when you throw it away?)
Some of those discarded seeds would grow the following year, eventually creating concentrations of the plants preferred by the natives. Ultimately, travelling bands of Paleo-Indians would discover that some of their hunting camps also became good food collecting sites.
A campsite that offered "easy pickings" for harvested the seeds or other desirable plant parts would be worth revisiting. Gradually some bands invested enough effort in helping the plants grow, and that investment justified living steadily in the same place. This pattern of adopting agriculture may have occurred first in Meso-America, with one particular grass selected over and over again until its small seedhead evolved into ears of corn and the crop was adopted by tribes to the north and east.
After the advent of agriculture, Native American settlements in Virginia became more stable. Tribal communities grew to be as large as several hundred people, as recorded by John Smith and others. Slash-and-burn agriculture required creating new fields for crops every three years or so. Settlements were not rigidly located in a particular spot. Native American towns "oozed" across the landscape as families moved their simple reed- or bark-covered huts to stay close to the particular spot of land where they were growing corn, beans, and squash (typically).