Re: Chief
I'm not really espousing any methodology, I'm just curious what systems various settlements use and how it is working out for them. Community property for all is certainly the simplest, but don't some people feel abused by others logging in, using stuff stored around the settlement w/o contributing anything and then logging back out? Or people using up resources collected by others as part of a larger project? Do you have individual members use small locked chests for project materials? Or are these problems you just haven't encountered?
Well I have no knowledge of the inner workings of the Tribe, but I doubt you'll get a completely straight answer from them either so I'm going to go into full-on speculation mode and answer how I imagine it to be:
The Tribe probably works more like a loose fraternity or a high-school clique than pure communism. There is no specific hierarchy of those in charge, but there is likely an inner core of the most active and popular(read as:1337) who collectively make decisions. The Chief being the most of both of those might be seen as a defacto ruler, but I doubt he wants or has any standardized position.
They undoubtedly share most everything amongst each other, but if someone is seen to not be pulling their weight or "making dem pies" they will get together and kill him/her. I think there has been at least one forum drama thread when a Brave got his ass killed for being a leech. He flipped out and posted about how much backstabbers they were, but they all just laughed at him like the ***** he was. Everyone had a good troll-fest and moved on.
Honestly if you can get this type of group dynamic going it's probably the best there is. Unless there is a falling-out between members, then it might turn ugly, but that's basically true for any style of village you run anyways.