Interior, Department of

US government department created in 1849 which was responsible for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the General Land Office, the Patent Office, the Pensions Commission, and the Census Bureau. It later assumed responsibility for the Geological Survey (1879), the Reclamation Service (1902), the Bureau of Mines (1910), the National Park Service (1916), and the Fish and Wildlife Service (1940). The bureaux for pensions, patents, the census, and agriculture have since been moved to other departments. The secretary of the interior is Dirk Kempthorne (from 2006).

During the New Deal (the programme introduced by President F D Roosevelt in 1933 to tackle the Great Depression), the department operated the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Public Works Administration.