Racial isolates in the United States
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Racial isolates in the United States, also known as tri-racial isolates, biracial isolates, or American isolates are mixed-race communities in the United States along the Eastern Shore and in the South who are of free African-American and European-American ancestry.[1] Many of these communities have also currently or historically asserted Native American ancestry. The veracity of Native American ancestry among racial isolate communities has been questioned, particularly in recent years with advances in genealogical and genetic research. Historically, some communities claimed Portuguese[2] or Spanish/"Moorish" ancestry.[3] Communities that have been described as racial isolates include the Melungeons, Carmelites, Delaware Moors, Brandywine people, Lumbee, Brass Ankles, Chestnut Ridge people, Dominickers, Alabama Cajans, and Dominickers. Some descendants of the Lumbee, the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, have been federally recognized as a Native American tribe. Other racial isolate descendants have been recognized as tribes by certain states, including the Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware and the Nanticoke Indian Association of Delaware, the Wassamasaw Tribe of Varnertown Indians in South Carolina, the Piscataway-Conoy Tribe of Maryland and Piscataway Indian Nation and Tayac Territory in Maryland, the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians in Alabama, and the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation and Ramapough Mountain Indians in New Jersey.
Groups of racial isolates
There are approximately 200 groups of racial isolates in the Eastern United States, with most being in the Southeast. Because there is no single unified group and because "racial isolate" or "triracial isolate" is a term used by social science, some members of these groups reject the terminology. Common features of groups characterized as racial isolates often include claiming a mix of African, European, and Native American ancestry as well as living in geographically isolated small towns and rural areas.[4] Members of racial isolates often intermarried with fellow group members, rather than with outsiders who were Black or white.[5]
Alabama Cajans
The Alabama Cajans are a mixed-race group in Alabama of free Black, white, Creole, and possible Native American ancestry. A portion of their descendants intermarried with and integrated into white communities, while some other descendants have been recognized in Alabama as the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians.[6][7][8][9]
Brass Ankles
Brandywine people
The Brandywine people of Southern Maryland descend from free African Americans and European Americans. Some also assert ancestry from the Piscataway people. The Brandywine people were sometimes referred to as "Wesorts" (also spelled "We-sorts"), although the term is commonly considered derogatory or as a pejorative.[10]
Two groups descended from the Brandywine people have been recognized as tribes by the State of Maryland: the Piscataway Indian Nation and Tayac Territory and the Piscataway-Conoy Tribe of Maryland. Neither group has been federally recognized as a tribe.[11]
Chestnut Ridge people
Delaware Moors
The Delaware Moors are a mixed-race group of mostly African and European descent living in Delaware, with an off-shoot group that later moved to southern New Jersey. Historically classified as African Americans, the State of Delaware reclassified them as a separate, non-Black group in 1914. Some descendants of the Delaware Moors became members of state-recognized tribes, including the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation in New Jersey, the Nanticoke Indian Association of Delaware, and the Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware.[12]
Dominickers
Lumbee
The Lumbee people are a racial isolate community in North Carolina of mixed ancestry, predominantly African and European. Many Lumbee people also assert Native American ancestry. Lumbee claims of Native American ancestry have faced scrutiny and skepticism for decades.[13]
A group of Lumbee people known as the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina were given federal recognition as a Native American tribe by Congress in 2026. President Donald Trump signed the Lumbee Fairness Act into law on December 18, 2025.[14]
Melungeons
Carmelites
Ramapough Mountain people
The Ramampough Mountain people are a mixed-race group in New Jersey of mostly African and European ancestry. Historically they were often referred to as "Jackson whites", which Ramapough Mountain people may regard as a misnomer. Many also assert Native American ancestry, including Lenape and/or Tuscarora ancestry.[15] Some of the Ramapough Mountain people are members of the Ramapough Mountain Indians, a state-recognized tribe in New Jersey. The Ramapough Mountain Indians do not have federal recognition as a tribe, nor are they recognized as a tribe in New York.[16]
According to a 1976 report in The New York Times, "Some recoil from a black heritage and prefer to associate themselves with Indian ancestry" while "Others have passed for white outside their communities..."[15]