Selene Gifford

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.^[1] In 1938 she was a speaker at a Florida state conference on social work.^[2] By 1940 she was chief regional supervisor of the WPA in the deep South, and spoke to the Mississippi Conference of Social Workers.^[3]

In 1943 Gifford was a public welfare consultant at the War Relocation Authority, tasked with visiting Japanese internment camps.^[4][5] She argued for the employment of White conscientious objectors at the camps,^[6] and spoke about the camps on a panel with Mike Masaoka and Annie Clo Watson at a social work convention.^[7]

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,^[8] and worked in Geneva with the International Refugee Organization on relief, resettlement and rehabilitation programs.^[9][10][11]

Gifford, who was white, spent most of her career at the Bureau of Indian Affairs.^[12][13] She became head of the bureau's Division of Community Services in 1949,^[9][14] and assistant commissioner of the bureau in 1952.^[15] In 1958, she testified before a House committee on funding for the education of American Indian children.^[16][17] In 1961, she testified before a Senate committee on the constitutional rights of the American Indian.^[11] She also established job placement programs,^[18] studied issues of law enforcement funding,^[19] 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?"^[20] In 1962, Gifford received the bureau's Citation for Distinguished Service.^[12] In 1964, she received the Federal Woman's Award.^[21][22] She retired from the bureau in 1965.^[14]

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.