Others

OTHERS

More than a cursory reading of the Book of Mormon shows there were "others" already on Book of Mormon lands prior to Mulek and Lehi's arrival:

In 1980 Nibley continued teaching that it is a "simplistic reading of the book . . . [to] assume that the only people permitted in the hemisphere before Columbus were either descendants of Lehi or of Jared and his brother." (Hugh W. Nibley, The Book of Mormon and the Ruins: The Main Issues, FARMS, 1980, p. 2; How Many Nephites?)

"When all the considerations we have reviewed are weighed, I find it inescapable that there were substantial populations in the "promised land" throughout the period of the Nephite record, and very probably in the Jaredite era also."

"Hereafter, readers will not be justified in saying that the record fails to mention "others" but only that we readers have hitherto failed to observe what is said." (John Sorenson, Nephite Culture and Society, 1997, p. 100; See also Nephi's Neighbors)

Aside from the unaccountable population increases as Sorenson notes among the Lamanites, here are some other evidences:

...many of the people of Ammon who were Lamanites by birth (Helaman 3:12)

...I am Mormon and a pure descendant of Lehi. (3 Nephi 5:20)

...Lamanite...traditions of their fathers (another culture) (Mosiah 1:5; Alma 3:11, 9:16, 17:9, 19:14, 26:24, 37:9, 60:32; Helaman 5:19, 15:4)

For at the present our strugglings were vain in restoring them to the true faith and they swore in their wrath that if it were possible they would destroy our records and us and also all the traditions of our fathers. (Enos 1:14)

...there were a certain number of the dissenters from the people of Nephi who had some years before gone over unto the Lamanites and taken upon themselves the name of Lamanites and also a certain number who were real descendants of the Lamanites (biologically) (Helaman 11:24)

...And they (disbelievers) were taught to hate the children of God even as the Lamanites (racism) were taught to hate the children of Nephi (another culture) from the beginning. (4 Nephi 1:39)