Excerpt from ‘Children of Promise’, By Apostle Mark E. Petersen, Pg. 46: ¹

“If there had been large numbers of other peoples here when the Jaredites came, or when Lehi arrived, certainly the Book of Mormon would have said so.
The land was reserved for the Lord’s purposes and for His peoples, and the Book of Mormon provides their histories.”

Excerpt from the LDS Gospel Topic Essay, Book of Mormon and DNA Studies: ²

“…critics insist that the Book of Mormon does not allow for the presence of other large populations in the Americas and that, therefore, Near Eastern DNA should be easily identifiable among modern native groups.”