'I explained that even if evidence for an early Christian community in Mesoamerica could be found, that still wouldn’t satisfy most critics or prove that the Book of Mormon is true. The task of finding the evidence of a real ancient community of New World Christians becomes difficult once we understand the complexity and nature of what might be found.'

'First, it’s important to remember that the Nephites were “Christian” for, at the most, 400 years. Second, the Nephite-Christians were a small group of persecuted believers among a sea of non-Christian believers in the ancient Americas.'

(Mike Ash, 'naïve Assumptions About New World Christians' May 2011)

Mike has another go at explaining away why no evidence of Book of Mormon peoples has been found. Ever.
This time it's because we are looking for evidence of a relatively small Christian community in a much larger group of people, except...
...what is actually being looked for is evidence of the 'small group of persecuted believers' AND the 'sea of non-Christian believers in the ancient Americas'. Who, after all were supposed to be, collectively, the only people on the land that the Lord had saved from other nations for them.

Mike is being deliberately disingenuous.

Let's be clear.
The Book of Mormon is a story of generations of millions of people who were the 'literal' ancestors of the Native American's and who were the first people to inhabit the land.
Now, because there is absolutely no evidence these people existed throughout America some apologists (Ash included) have tried to persuade people that the 'land' meant a relatively small part of Mesoamerica.

No problem. Let's accept that on face value.

A civilization of millions of people in a relatively small area of Mesoamerica should be apparent to any one who cares to make a serious search.
We know who they were
We know where they were
We know how many of them there were
We know what 'stuff' they had
and
We know exactly when they were there

Why is it SO difficult...?