DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Department of the Interior.The cabinet-level department of the federal government
responsible for managing the nation’s public lands and minerals, national parks, national wildlife
refuges, and western water resources, and for upholding federal trust responsibilities to Indian
tribes. • The Department also has responsibility for migratory-wildlife conservation; historical
preservation; endangered species; surface-mined-lands preservation and restoration; mapping; and
geological, hydrological, and biological science. It was created in 1849 and reorganized in 1950.
Headed by the Secretary of the Interior, it administers several agencies, including the Bureau of
Land Management, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S.
Geological Survey. — Also termed Interior Department. [Cases: Public Lands 94. C.J.S. Public
Lands §§ 167–168.][Blacks Law 8th]