According to John Tvedtnes, Moroni had to search among his troops to find "a descendant of Laman" to send on a spying mission (Alma 55:4-5). The implication of the story is that the Nephites either didn't look enough like Lamanites or didn't speak like them and could therefore not have deceived them. This undoubtedly resulted from the geographical separation of the tribes. Since there had been "Nephite" dissenters to the Lamanites, one wonders why Moroni could not have sent someone else. The answer may be that these dissenters were, in fact, always Mulekites or Zoramites, whose physical characteristics or language distinguished them from both the Nephites and the Lamanites. [John A. Tvedtnes, "Book of Mormon Tribal Affiliation and Military Castes," in Warfare in the Book of Mormon, F.A.R.M.S., pp. 304-305]