Joseph Smith had no knowledge of any foreign language at the time of the Book of Mormon's composition, and the name "Helaman" has never been discovered in any non-Mormon text.
The Book of Mormon first mentions Helaman in Alma 31:7,[3] and little is known of his life prior to this brief allusion.
[4] After their missionary labors among the Zoramites, Alma, his sons, and the rest of their company returned to Zarahemla.
[12] Shortly afterward, in the 19th year of the reign of the judges (c. 73 BC), Alma approached Helaman for an important conversation.
In what some consider a good model for child-parent interviews,[13] Alma questioned Helaman, praised him for his beliefs, and blessed him.
[15] After this, Helaman and his brethren went among the people declaring the word of God and appointing "priests and teachers throughout all the land, over all the churches.
[19] Helaman next appears in Alma 53, in the 26th year of the reign of the judges (c. 66 BC), trying to persuade the Anti-Nephi-Lehies, also known as Ammonites, not to take up arms.
[20] Years earlier, upon their conversion to the gospel of Christ, the Anti-Nephi-Lehies had made an oath to God that they "never would use weapons again for the shedding of man's blood.
[23] Regardless, the interesting turn of events made Helaman have the Anti-Nephi-Lehies marching at the head of an army of two thousand soldiers.
LDS leader Richard J. Maynes cited the entire episode in a General Conference as containing good examples of covenant-keeping behavior.
[28] Helaman wrote an epistle to the captain of the Nephite armies, Moroni, informing him of their success and expressing confusion that the government did not send more troops and support to the western front.
[30] The next year the Nephites successfully drove the Lamanites back into the land southward and thus the war ended at last.
[31] After the war ended in the 31st year of the reign of the judges (c. 61 BC), Helaman first briefly "returned to the place of his inheritance".