June Helm was born in Twin Falls, Idaho, September 13, 1924. Her family moved to Kansas when she was six years old. She attended the University of Kansas City, and transferred to the University of Chicago, earning her Ph.B. in 1944, M.A. in 1949, and Ph.D. in 1958. Helm married Richard MacNeish in 1945, and the couple moved to Ottawa, Canada in 1949. Her research there along the Mackenzie River became the basis of her Ph.D. thesis at the University of Chicago.

According to the University of Iowa Press, Dr. Helm served as president of the American Anthropological Association and adviser to the Indian Brotherhood. She served as consultant to Canada's Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry.

Helm joined the faculty at the University of Iowa in 1960 as assistant professor of Sociology and Anthropology, and was promoted to full professor in 1966. Helm worked to establish the Department of Anthropology at the University of Iowa in 1969. She married Pierce King in 1968. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in March 1994. At the time of this award, Dr. Helm was head of American Indian and Native Studies at the University of Iowa. She retired in 1999. June Helm died February 5, 2004.