The nature of the relationship btween the Mulekites and the Lamanites became a little clearer to me recently while reading the Book of Mormon this year.

In Omni verses 12 and 13 we read that the 1st King Mosiah led some of the Nephites out of the land of Nephi, took them on a journey and discovered the land and people of Zarahemla. Mosiah and his people then joined up with the Zarahemla-ites, also known as Mulekites. Mulek, son of Zedekiah King of Judah, was the principal of that group of immigrants (Mosiah 25:2, Helaman 6:10).

At that point, the Nephites had already had a long tradition of wars with the Lamanites.

It finally occured to me that since the Nephites were “new” to the Mulekites, so also were the Lamanites.

In Omni 24 we read that by the time the first Mosiah’s son Benjamin is king, the combined Nephites/Mulekites have had a war with the Lamanites.

In this, I see the beginning of the resentment between the Mulekites and the Nephites, in that the Nephites in effect brought the Lamanites upon the Mulekites. In spite of the fact that the Mulekites (Zarahemla-ites) rejoiced over the Nephites bringing the Brass Plates (the Old Testament up through the time of Jeremiah), and a presumed restoration of the Hebrew language, along with a presumed restoration of Hebrew and Egyptian writing, the fact remains that had the Nephites not come to Zarahemla, the Lamanites would likely not have discovered Zarahemla and would have left them alone.

To me, this explains in large part why Mulekite dissenters and King-men were not reluctant to join or make league with the Lamanites later on in the Book of Mormon. The dissenting Mulekites likely saw the Lamanites as the Nephites’ enemy, not their’s.