Mosiah 9:9-13

8 And we began to build buildings, and to repair the walls of the city, yea, even the walls of the city of Lehi-Nephi, and the city of Shilom.

9 And we began to till the ground, yea, even with all manner of seeds, with seeds of corn, and of wheat, and of barley, and with neas, and with sheum, and with seeds of all manner of fruits; and we did begin to multiply and prosper in the land.

10 Now it was the cunning and the craftiness of king Laman, to bring my people into bondage, that he yielded up the land that we might possess it.

11 Therefore it came to pass, that after we had dwelt in the land for the space of twelve years that king Laman began to grow uneasy, lest by any means my people should wax strong in the land, and that they could not overpower them and bring them into bondage.

12 Now they were a lazy and an idolatrous people; therefore they were desirous to bring us into bondage, that they might glut themselves with the labors of our hands; yea, that they might feast themselves upon the flocks of our fields.

13 Therefore it came to pass that king Laman began to stir up his people that they should contend with my people; therefore there began to be wars and contentions in the land.

Mosiah 9:8-13

Zeniff has negotiated with the Lamanite king and won back the land of Nephi.  The residents were moved out of the land and Zeniff’s party moved in.  The first then they did was to begin to build buildings and repair the walls protecting the cities. 

Following the example of Lehi’s party, Zeniff brought a variety of seeds (see 1 Nephi 8:1).  They planted corn, wheat, and barley.

Mosiah 9:9 in the Book of Mormon lists barley among several crops that were cultivated by the Nephites, and Alma 11:7 singles out barley as the primary grain into which silver and gold were converted in the Nephite system of weights and measures. Yet scientists of Joseph Smith's day did not know of any examples of domesticated barley in the pre-Columbian Americas. It was not until the 1980s that the first direct evidence of cultivated barley in the ancient New World was discovered.[1] 

Zeniff also mentions seeds of sheum.

Broadening the discussion from a focus on measures for grains, we come to "sheum," a Nephite word for a kind of grain. As one might expect, the term is at home in the ancient Near East. It is the Old Assyrian name for wheat, which is she'um or e'um.²⁷ We find this very term listed among other cereal names, including corn (maize), wheat, barley, and neas (see Mosiah 9:9).[2]

Remember how willing the Lamanite king, King Laman, was to give Zeniff the land?  He even went so far as to forcibly remove his people who lived in the land.  Zeniff should have been more skeptical of Laman’s willingness to grant his wishes.  About twelve years later, Laman’s true intent becomes clear.

King Laman became “uneasy” about the people of Zeniff.  What if they became strong enough, the Lamanites couldn’t defeat them and bring them into bondage.

If you recall, the first party that searched for the Land of Nephi intended to destroy the Nephites.  Limhi spied on them and found they were a good people (see Mosiah 9:1).  It was over the issue of destroying the Lamanites that the first party failed.  We now see his opinion of the Lamanites has changed.[3]

Now Zeniff sees them as lazy and idolatrous.  Why did they want to bring Zeniff’s people into bondage?  They didn’t want to do the work themselves.  They wanted to take advantage of the work of the Nephites.  They wanted them to do the work while they lived off their labor.  A description of the Lamanite like this one has been called racist by critics of the Book of Mormon.  “Mosiah 9:12 describes the Lamanites as ‘a lazy and an idolatrous people,’ but it does not associate these traits with their skin color.”^[4]

King Laman began to stir up his people.  This led to them desiring war with the Nephites.  “[T]here began to be wars and contentions in the land.”  (This might well be the wars mentioned by Amaleki in Omni 1:24, writing about King Benjamin leading his people during a Lamanite war.)

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[1] Complexity, Consistency, Ignorance, and Probabilities, Melvin J. Thorne, Maxwell Institute, accessed September 5, 2014.

[2] Weighing and Measuring in the Worlds of the Book of Mormon, John W. Welch, Maxwell Institute, accessed September 5, 2014.

[3] Alma's Enemies: The Case of the Lamanites, Amlicites, and Mysterious Amalekites, J. Christopher Conkling, Maxwell Institute, accessed September 5, 2014.

[4] The Charge of "Racism" in the Book of Mormon, John A. Tvedtnes, Maxwell Institute, accessed September 5, 2014.