Josephine Gates Kelly was born on January 24, 1888, in Cannon Ball, North Dakota.

[1] In 1902, Kelly left Standing Rock to enroll at the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania.

[1] In the early 1950s, Kelly assisted in the establishment of a memorial in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, in honor of Native Americans who were killed serving in the United States Armed Forces.

[2] Her youngest son was named Louis; he was killed while serving in the military and buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

A daughter of hers, Susan Kelly Power, was one of the co-founders of the American Indian Center in Chicago, Illinois.