Born May 25, 1945, in a chickee at a tribal camp in Fort Pierce, Jones spoke no English when she entered school at age 6.
In 2014, she was granted an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Florida State University.
[3] The Palm Beach Post named her one of the most 100 influential people in Florida in the 20th century.
As Director of Education, Gopher was behind the development of the tribe's first charter school, "Pemayetv Emahakv" or "Our Way", which opened in 2007.
In 2007, Jones received the exceedingly rare Westcott Award from Florida State University.