One of the difficulties in establishing a Book of Mormon geography in the real world is that researchers often treat the question from the latest Nephite perspective rather than one that is time appropriate. One of the important distinctions in timing is given in these verses. The eastern border of the Nephite lands was described in Alma 22:29, but the description is often ignored in mapping the Nephite lands in favor of what those lands looked like after Chief Captain Moroni’s military expansion into those eastern lands.
Alma 22:29 said: “And also there were many Lamanites on the east by the seashore, whither the Nephites had driven them. And thus the Nephites were nearly surrounded by the Lamanites.” Being nearly surrounded was not a good idea, and Moroni pushes the Lamanites out of the lands, gaining control of the coast.
Mormon gives us no information about his campaign, and it is given so quickly that it suggests that while there were Lamanites located along the eastern border of the Nephite lands, they were not located in populous cities. Thus, they were not Nephites, but may not have been the same Lamanites as those who were obviously a state-like organization in which the sons of Mosiah preached, and over which Amalickiah had recently become king.
The nature of the term Lamanite should be remembered to be similar to the Hebrew use of the word “gentile,” which did not designate any particular city or nation, but only “not us.” That is the Nephite usage first documented in Jacob 1:14, where Jacob wrote: “I shall call them Lamanites that seek to destroy the people of Nephi, and those who are friendly to Nephi I shall call Nephites.”