Editing Lamanites (section)

===Teachings in the 2000s===
The existence of a Lamanite population has received no support in mainstream science or archaeology. Genetic studies indicate that the Indigenous Americans are related to the present populations in [[Mongolia]], [[Siberia]], and the vicinity,<ref>{{citation |title=mtDNA Variation Indicates Mongolia May Have Been the Source for the Founding Population for the New World |first= D. Andrew|last= Merriwether |journal=[[American Journal of Human Genetics]] |year=1996 |volume=59 |issue=1 |pages=204–12 |pmc=1915096 |display-authors=etal |pmid=8659526}}; {{Cite journal |last1=Raghavan |first1=Maanasa |last2=Skoglund |first2=Pontus |title=Upper Palaeolithic Siberian genome reveals dual ancestry of Native Americans |pages=87–91 |volume=505 |year=2014 |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]|issue=7481 |doi=10.1038/nature12736|pmid=24256729 |pmc=4105016 |bibcode=2014Natur.505...87R }}</ref> and Polynesians to those in [[Southeast Asia]].<ref name="Friedlaender">{{Cite journal |last1=Friedlaender |first1=Jonathan S. |last2=Friedlaender |first2=Françoise R. |last3=Reed |first3=Floyd A. |last4=Kidd |first4=Kenneth K. |last5=Kidd |first5=Judith R. |last6=Chambers |first6=Geoffrey K. |last7=Lea |first7=Rodney A. |last8=Loo |first8=Jun-Hun |last9=Koki |first9=George |last10=Hodgson |first10=Jason A. |last11=Merriwether |first11=D. Andrew |last12=Weber |first12=James L. |date=2008 |title=The Genetic Structure of Pacific Islanders |journal=[[PLOS Genetics]] |publisher=[[PLOS|Public Library of Science]] |location= San Francisco, California |volume=4 |page=e19 |issue=1 |doi=10.1371/journal.pgen.0040019 |pmc=2211537 |pmid=18208337 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

In the twenty-first century, LDS Church outlets have stated that "[n]othing in the Book of Mormon precludes migration into the Americas by peoples of Asiatic origin". The 1981 edition introduction to the Book of Mormon was changed in 2006 from stating Lamanites "are the principal ancestors of" to "are among the ancestors of the American Indians."<ref>{{citation |author-link=Peggy Fletcher Stack |first=Peggy Fletcher |last=Stack |title=Single Word Change in Book of Mormon Speaks Volumes |url=http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=7403990&itype=NGPSID |newspaper=[[Salt Lake Tribune]] |date=2007-11-08 |df=dmy-all}}</ref>

Apologetics seeking to maintain relatively orthodox understandings of the Book of Mormon's depiction of Lamanites while recognizing the findings of modern genetic studies—some of which were publicized by the LDS Church at the turn of the twenty-first century—argued that DNA findings invalidated not the existence of Book of Mormon peoples per se but the presumption that they were a hemispheric society.{{sfn|Duffy|2008a|pp=42–46}} This has involved supposing that Nephites and Lamanites dwelled in only part of the Americas while genetically identified ancestors of Indigenous peoples occupied the rest.{{sfn|Duffy|2008a|p=46}}