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Alestine Andre was born in 1951 in Aklavik, NWT to Eliza (Sam) and Hyacinthe Andre. She lived on the land with her family until the age of six. Beginning in 1958, Andre attended school at the RC Mission School in Aklavik, Grollier Hall in Inuvik, Akaitcho Hall in Yellowknife, and she graduated from Samuel Hearne Secondary School in Inuvik. Alestine Andre spent her summers with her family at their camp.

Andre graduated with a diploma in Public Administration from Camosun College in 1987, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology and Women’s Studies from the University of Victoria in 1994, and with a Master’s degree in Ethnobotany from the University of Victoria in 2006.

Alestine Andre worked for CBC Radio in Inuvik, the Committee for Original Peoples’ Entitlement (COPE, now the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation), and the Mackenzie Delta Tribal Council (now Gwich’in Tribal Council (GTC)). In 1994, Andre began her career with the Gwich’in Social and Cultural Institute (GSCI, now the GTC’s Department of Cultural Heritage). During her time with GSCI, Andre worked as Cultural Director, Executive Director, and Heritage Researcher.

Alestine Andre’s contributions to culture and heritage have been recognized by a number of organizations. In 2005, Andre was awarded a Gwich’in Achievement Award by the GTC in the career category of Gwich’in Culture. In 2007, Andre was awarded a National Aboriginal Achievement Award in the category of Culture, Heritage and Spirituality. In 2012, Andre was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Beryl Clemetsen Gillespie was born in Evanston Illinois on June 18, 1938, the daughter of Erling A. Clemetsen and Florence Clemetsen. Her father owned a wood working plant in Chicago, and she grew up in the small community of Long Grove, Illinois. She received her B.A. at Cornell University in 1960 and her M.A. in Anthropology at the University of Iowa in 1969. Beryl Gillespie was a research associate of northern anthropologist Dr. June Helm for several years, conducting ethnographic fieldwork with Dene consultants in Detah, Behchoko (Rae), Deline (Fort Franklin), and Tulita (Fort Norman) between 1968 and 1981, as well as archival research. Beryl's M.A. thesis was an ethnohistory of the Yellowknives Dene, and she continued graduate studies at the University of Iowa Anthropology department for several years. She contributed to several anthropological texts, including the Handbook of North American Indians, Subarctic volume. She was also a consultant for the Indian Brotherhood from 1973-1975 and the Berger Commission in 1976. In 1981, Beryl Gillespie participated in the project to build the mooseskin boat currently on display at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre. Shortly thereafter she retired from academia. Beryl was first married to Dr. Robert A. Gillespie in 1961, later marrying Eugene S. Rave in the late 1970s. She died in Iowa City, Iowa, on September 22, 2002.

June Helm was born on September 13, 1924 in Twin Falls, Idaho to Julia Frances (nee Dixon) and William Jennings Helm. Her family moved to Kansas City in 1930 where she attended public and high school. She graduated from high school in 1941 and attended the University of Kansas City until 1942 when she transferred to the University of Chicago. In 1945, Helm married Richard S. "Scotty" MacNeish, an archaeologist.

In 1949, Helm and MacNeish moved to Ottawa where he held an appointment at the National Museum of Canada. During his summer archaeological survey of the Mackenzie River, MacNeish learned that the small community of Jean Marie River required volunteer teachers. In the summer of 1951, June Helm and fellow graduate student, Teresa Carterette went to Jean Marie River as volunteer teachers, however, Helm also started to compile ethnographic field data at this time, which became the basis of her PhD dissertation. She received her PhD from the University of Chicago in 1958. In 1959, the Tlicho (Dogrib) people became the focus of Helm's fieldwork, which entailed ten trips to the Northwest Territories between 1959-1979. Ultimately, she edited the Subarctic Vol. 6 of the Handbook of North American Indians that was published by the Smithsonian Institute in 1981 and wrote several books, monographs, articles and chapters about her fieldwork in the Northwest Territories with the Dene. In the 1970s, she served as an expert witness and land claims researcher for the Indian Brotherhood (Dene Nation), and as a consultant to the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry.

During the years that Helm lived in Canada, she was a sessional lecturer at Carleton University in Ottawa (1949-1959) and at the University of Manitoba (1953). After she and MacNeish divorced in 1958, she became a professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology of the University of Iowa in 1960. In 1968, she married architect Pierce King. In 1969, the University of Iowa established the Department of Anthropology, where Helm, at intervals, served as department chair. Between 1993-1996, she chaired the American Indian and Native Studies Program. She was also the president of the American Anthropological Association (1985-1987), served as editor of American Ethnological Society publications (1964-1968), was president of the Central States Anthropological Society (1970-1971), chaired Section H of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1978), was associate editor of American Ethnologist (1979-1981) and was president of the American Ethnological Society (1982-1983). She was also elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1994. June Helm was professor emerita at the University of Iowa, having retired in December 1999 after 40 years of teaching. June Helm died on February 5, 2004.

Nancy Oestreich Lurie was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on January 29, 1924, the only child of Carl Ralph Oestreich and Rayline Danielson Oestreich. Her father served on the engineering faculty at the University of Wisconsin and also volunteered at the Milwaukee Public Museum and engendered Nancy's early interest in anthropology and museology. Lurie received her Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology and sociology from the University of Wisconsin in 1945, her Masters from the University of Chicago in 1947 and went on to receive her PhD from Northwestern University in 1952.

Lurie's fieldwork included work with the Wisconsin Winnebagos during her undergraduate studies. She focused her research on culture change and on teaching white society respect and fairness toward Aboriginal peoples, and this would persist as a theme in her professional work. The Winnebagos continued to be research partners through her career.

Lurie's doctoral work at Northwestern University from 1948-1952 compared culture change in the Wisconsin and Nebraska Winnebagos and combined ethnohistorical research with fieldwork. At Northwestern she met and then married Edward Lurie in 1951; they divorced amicably in 1963.

Between 1954-1957, Lurie worked as an expert witness on seven cases for the United States Indian Claims Commission and in 1957, she began teaching applied anthropology at the University of Michigan, where she obtained a tenure-tracked position in 1961. Between 1961-1962 Lurie also served as Sol Tax's assistant in the American Indian Chicago Conference, which involved ninety tribes gathering to draft the Declaration of Indian Purpose, later presented to President John F. Kennedy. Lurie's work with Sol Tax and his 'action anthropology' methodology gave her a national profile.

Starting in 1959, Lurie conducted fieldwork in the Northwest Territories with fellow Chicago graduate student June Helm. Together they worked with the Tłı̨chǫ, making trips to Behchokǫ̀ (Rae) and Wha Ti (Lac La Martre) in 1959, 1962 and 1967.

In 1963, Lurie joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee as associate professor, where her first major task was establishing a Masters program with a certificate option in museology in collaboration with the Milwaukee Public Museum. She was promoted to professor three years later and was department chair from 1967-1970, when she helped to establish a doctoral program in anthropology. In 1972, Lurie fulfilled a childhood aspiration and became curator and head of the anthropology section of the Milwaukee Public Museum, where she worked until her retirement in 1993. She continued to serve as a volunteer there until 2015.

Throughout her career, Lurie was committed to the four-field tradition of anthropology in teaching and museum work. The emphasis in her own specialty of cultural anthropology was on community consultation, local control of development plans, respect for her consultants, training Native American scholars and educating mainstream society to respect Native American person and traditions. Her many honours and accomplishments include being a Fullbright-Hays lecturer at the University of Aarhus, Denmark from 1965-1966, and President of the American Anthropological Association in 1982.

In retirement, Lurie lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She passed away on May 13, 2017.