Enos comments that the Lamanites' skill "was in the bow" (Enos 1:20). According to William Hamblin, the Book of Mormon mentions only the sword more often than the bow. Bows are mentioned twenty-two times, arrows twenty-six. Bows were used by both Nephite and Lamanite cultural groups but are not mentioned as having been used by the Jaredite culture.
In Mesoamerica, there are limited artistic representations of the use of the bow by at least the second century A.D.; however, the numerous arrowheads found might push the date back to at least the first millennium B.C. [William Hamblin, "The Bow and Arrow in the Book of Mormon," in Warfare in the Book of Mormon, pp. 365-399]