Selene Gifford
{{short description|American government official}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Selene Gifford
| image = SeleneGifford1964.png
| alt = An older white woman wearing round glasses and a dark dress or jacket
| caption = Selene Gifford, from a 1964 publication of the United States federal government
| other_names =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = May 30, 1901
| birth_place = Rochester, Massachusetts
| death_date = {{d-da|July 21, 1979|May 30, 1901}}
| death_place = Leesburg, Virginia
| occupation = Social worker, federal official, international relief worker
| years_active =
| known_for = Federal Woman's Award (1964)
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| relatives =
}}
Selene Gifford (May 30, 1901 – July 21, 1979) was an American social worker, and an international and federal government official. She won the Federal Woman's Award in 1964, for her work and leadership at the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Early life
Selene Gifford was born in Rochester, Massachusetts, the daughter of George G. Gifford and Elizabeth Anna Sherman Gifford.
Career
During the Great Depression, Gifford was a social worker in various states. In 1936, she was assistant regional social worker with the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in West Virginia.{{Cite news|date=1936-04-30|title=Stone Again is Welfare Head|pages=3|work=The Charleston Daily Mail|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83863710/stone-again-is-welfare-head/|access-date=2021-08-21|via=Newspapers.com}} In 1938 she was a speaker at a Florida state conference on social work.{{Cite news|date=1938-03-23|title=State Welfare Program Opens Sunday Night|pages=14|work=Tampa Bay Times|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83862213/state-welfare-program-opens-sunday-night/|access-date=2021-08-21|via=Newspapers.com}} By 1940 she was chief regional supervisor of the WPA in the deep South, and spoke to the Mississippi Conference of Social Workers.{{Cite news|date=1940-04-18|title=WPA Region Chief Slated for Speech at Assembly Here|pages=18|work=Clarion-Ledger|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83863872/wpa-region-chief-slated-for-speech-at/|access-date=2021-08-21|via=Newspapers.com}}
In 1943 Gifford was a public welfare consultant at the War Relocation Authority, tasked with visiting Japanese internment camps.{{Cite news|date=June 19, 1943|title=Welfare Head Studies Problem|work=Gila News-Courier|url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83025353/1943-06-19/ed-1/?sp=2&st=text&r=0.441,1.051,0.651,0.632,0|access-date=August 21, 2021}}{{Cite book|last=Park|first=Yoosun|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gSa3DwAAQBAJ&q=Selene+Gifford+college|title=Facilitating Injustice: The Complicity of Social Workers in the Forced Removal and Incarceration of Japanese Americans, 1941-1946|date=2019-10-17|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-008135-5|pages=134|language=en}} She argued for the employment of White conscientious objectors at the camps,Gifford, Selene to Mr. Myer (April 7, 1943), [https://cdn.calisphere.org/data/28722/1z/bk0013c5r1z/files/bk0013c5r1z-FID1.pdf Memorandum]. and spoke about the camps on a panel with Mike Masaoka and Annie Clo Watson at a social work convention.{{Cite news|date=February 25, 1943|title=Masaoka May Speak to U.S. Social Workers|page=3|work=Pacific Citizen|url=https://pacificcitizen.org/wp-content/uploads/archives-menu/Vol.016_%2308_Feb_25_1943.pdf|access-date=August 21, 2021}}
After World War II, she was based overseas: she served as deputy chief of mission at the United States Embassy in Cairo, was Director of Displaced Persons at the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) in London,{{Cite book|last=Taylor|first=Lynne|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MEpBDwAAQBAJ&dq=Selena+Gifford&pg=PA174|title=In the Children's Best Interests: Unaccompanied Children in American-Occupied Germany, 1945-1952|date=2017-11-29|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-1-4875-1516-4|pages=174–175|language=en}} and worked in Geneva with the International Refugee Organization on relief, resettlement and rehabilitation programs.{{Cite news|date=1949-12-29|title=Indian Bureau Has New Welfare Head|pages=8|work=Rapid City Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83863090/indian-bureau-has-new-welfare-head/|access-date=2021-08-21|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|last=Buchen|first=Charlotte|date=1959-03-17|title=Capitol Executive is Phoenix Visitor|pages=17|work=Arizona Republic|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83864329/capitol-executive-is-phoenix/|access-date=2021-08-21|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite book|last=United States Congress Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tAEvAAAAMAAJ&dq=Selene+Gifford+Indian+Affairs&pg=PA123|title=Constitutional Rights of the American Indian|date=1962|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|pages=123–130|language=en}}
File:FederalWomansAward1964.png poses in the Oval Office with six winners of the 1964 Federal Woman's Award; from left to right: Elizabeth Messer, Evelyn M. Anderson, Gertrude Blanch, President Johnson, Patricia van Delden, Margaret Schwartz, and Selene Gifford]]
Gifford, who was white, spent most of her career at the Bureau of Indian Affairs.{{Cite news|date=August 3, 1962|title=Selene Gifford is Given Citation|work=Northern Virginia Sun|url=https://virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=NVS19620803.1.2&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN--------|access-date=August 21, 2021|via=Virginia Chronicle}}{{Cite news|date=1964-03-03|title=Federal Woman's Award to be Presented Tonight|pages=37|work=Newsday (Nassau Edition)|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83862385/federal-womans-award-to-be-presented/|access-date=2021-08-21|via=Newspapers.com}} She became head of the bureau's Division of Community Services in 1949,{{Cite news|date=1965-12-31|title=Bureau Announces Official Changes|pages=3|work=The Missoulian|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83864157/bureau-announces-official-changes/|access-date=2021-08-21|via=Newspapers.com}} and assistant commissioner of the bureau in 1952.{{Cite news|date=1952-05-10|title=Woman is Named to Indian Bureau Post|pages=1|work=The Independent-Record|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83864031/woman-is-named-to-indian-bureau-post/|access-date=2021-08-21|via=Newspapers.com}} In 1958, she testified before a House committee on funding for the education of American Indian children.{{Cite book|last=United States Congress House Committee on Education and Labor|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o2IvAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22Selene+Gifford%22+Federal&pg=PA719|title=Proposed Amendments to Public Laws 815 and 874, 81st Congress (assistance to Federally Affected School Districts).: Hearings Before a Subcommittee ... Eighty-fifth Congress|date=1958|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|pages=719–724|language=en}}{{Cite news|date=1953-12-11|title=Reservation's Schools are Held Inadequate|pages=24|work=Arizona Daily Star|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83862993/reservations-schools-are-held/|access-date=2021-08-21|via=Newspapers.com}} In 1961, she testified before a Senate committee on the constitutional rights of the American Indian. She also established job placement programs,{{Cite news|date=1951-11-08|title=Off-Reservation Jobs for 3000 Indians Goal|pages=12|work=Reno Gazette-Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83863290/off-reservation-jobs-for-3000-indians/|access-date=2021-08-21|via=Newspapers.com}} studied issues of law enforcement funding,{{Cite news|date=1956-08-21|title=Study Indian Law Problem|pages=6|work=The Kansas City Times|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83863582/study-indian-law-problem/|access-date=2021-08-21|via=Newspapers.com}} and supported the repeal of discriminatory laws regarding the sale of alcohol to Native Americans, saying "I do not deny that drinking is a problem among the Indians. But isn't it with any group of people?"{{Cite news|date=1958-04-20|title=Official Lauds Indians|pages=87|work=Arizona Republic|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83862520/official-lauds-indians/|access-date=2021-08-21|via=Newspapers.com}} In 1962, Gifford received the bureau's Citation for Distinguished Service. In 1964, she received the Federal Woman's Award.{{Cite news|date=1964-02-03|title=6 Women Selected for Federal Award|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/02/03/archives/6-women-selected-for-federal-award.html|access-date=2021-08-21|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web|last=Johnson|first=Lyndon Baines|date=March 3, 1964|title=Remarks to the Winners of the Federal Woman's Award|url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-the-winners-the-federal-womans-award|access-date=2021-08-21|website=The American Presidency Project}} She retired from the bureau in 1965.
Personal life
Selene Gifford died from colon cancer in Leesburg, Virginia in 1979, aged 78 years. Her grave is with those of her siblings, in Rochester, Massachusetts.
References
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Category:American social workers
Category:People from Rochester, Massachusetts