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. Members of racial isolates often intermarried with fellow group members, rather than with outsiders who were Black or white. The Native American ancestry claims of racial isolate descendants have often been questioned, including Lumbee claims of Native American ancestry. Many people are of both
Black and Native American ancestry, including many
Black Seminoles. Unlike the contested identity claims of the Lumbee and other racial isolate communities, the identity of these
Black Indians, including Black Seminoles, is not contested.
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.
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. 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.
Chestnut Ridge people Delaware Moors , December 26, 1895. 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.
Dominickers The
Dominickers were a small biracial ethnic group in the
Florida Panhandle during the late 1800s and the mid-1900s. They were of mixed African and European ancestry.
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. 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.
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. 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. 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..."
Redbones ==See also==