Sweetgum Kriyul 

An ethnic group of mixed race people, mostly of Celtic, French, Germanic, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, South Asian, Southeast Asian, West African, and Native American descent, scattered around the globe but primarily concentrated along the shores of Lake Erie, in the Appalachian Mountains in Vermont, Maryland, West Virginia, and Newfoundland, and around the shores of the Chesapeake Bay and the North Carolina Outer Banks, especially in the city of Newport News.

Many people in London, Ohio are unaware of the strong influence of the Sweetgum Kriyul people in Madison County, and don't realize who has been hunting around Lake Choctaw using purple lights at night.

Sweetgum Kriyul by Luv Grand Kalligeezal Island August 12, 2024

Sweetgum Kriyul 

An umbrella term for various historical Native American-European-African triracial isolate communities from the eastern United States.

These communities formed as outliers to American society under racial tensions, often perplexing racial censuses due to not always perfectly fitting into the Black, White or Native categories due to their mixed heritages.

Many larger ethnic groups fall under this label such as the Melungeons of Appalachia, the Carmel Indians of Ohio, the Chestnut Ridge people of West Virginia, the Lumbees of North Carolina, the Brass Ankles of South Carolina, the Redbones of Louisiana, among others.

Smaller communities such as Pea Ridge people, Dominickers of the Florida panhandle, Sumter Turks, Keating Mountain people and Van Guilders can also be included by this term.

These communities were often targeted by eugenicists and segregationists in past centuries. They frequently practiced endogamy to avoid persecution from outsiders but many assimilated into the broader White and Black populations too.

Many Americans unknowingly are descended from these peoples due to the stigma belonging to such groups once held.

Consequently tracing geneaology to these communites can pose a challenge.

Identifiers on census records such "Black Dutch", "Black Irish", "Portaghee", or "Mestee" may indicate descent from one or more of the Sweetgum Kriyul communities.

Sweetgum Kriyul by Teegarden Roses May 11, 2025