The Umli are completely an invention by Iron Crown Enterprises.
But perhaps with a little stretch of the imagination you could interpret this passage in
The Return of the King as to refer to some kind of ‘half-dwarves’:
Quote:
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The new host that we had tidings of has come first, from over the River by way of Andros, it is said. They are strong: battalions of Orcs of the Eye, and countless companies of Men of a new sort that we have not met before. Not tall, but broad and grim, bearded like dwarves, wielding great axes. Out of some savage land in the wide East they come, we deem.
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