Interior Department

A new Interior Department report underscores how closely the U.S. government collaborated with churches in operating boarding schools for Indigenous children. The federal government saw churches as useful in Christianizing Native children as part of a project to sever them from their culture, their identities and ultimately their land. The role of churches forms part of the Federal Indian Boarding...

The Interior Department announced the decision Wednesday night, citing a lack of industry interest in drilling off the Alaska coast and “conflicting court rulings” that have complicated drilling efforts in the Gulf of Mexico.

Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee have asked the Justice Department to investigate whether a Trump administration interior secretary engaged in possible criminal conduct while helping an Arizona developer get a crucial permit for a housing project. David Bernhardt, who led the Interior Department from 2019 to 2021, is accused of wrongdoing as he helped developer Michael Ingram, a...

A first-of-its-kind federal study of Native American boarding schools that for over a century sought to assimilate Indigenous children into white society has identified more than 500 student deaths at the institutions so far. But officials expect that figure to grow exponentially as research continues. The Interior Department report released Wednesday expands to more than 400 the number of schools...

Government investigators say former U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke misused his position to advance a Montana development project and lied to an agency ethics official about his involvement

The U.S. Interior Department says it will not pursue a Trump administration proposal that critics feared would have weakened rules for exploratory oil and gas drilling in Arctic waters

The Interior Department says it’s postponing planned onshore and offshore oil lease sales planned for next month after President Joe Biden’s executive order on climate change

President-elect Joe Biden plans to nominate New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland as interior secretary

The historic home of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers is now a national monument, the U.S. interior secretary and members of Mississippi’s congressional delegation announced Thursday. The designation for the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home was required by a law President Donald Trump signed in March 2019. The Interior Department said in a news release Thursday that Tougaloo...

The Trump administration plans to open up 2.3 million acres of land for hunting and fishing at more than 100 national wildlife refuges and fish hatcheries

The Trump administration has quietly decided once again to allow Americans to import the body parts of African elephants shot for sport, despite presidential tweets decrying the practice as a “horror show.” President Donald Trump personally intervened in November when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service first said it would lift an Obama-era ban on elephants imported from Zimbabwe and...

Nine of the 12 members of the National Park System Advisory Board resigned this week out of frustration that the new heads of the Interior Department hadn’t met with them, NBC News reported. Tony Knowles, the board’s chairman since 2010 and a former Democratic governor of Alaska, said in an interview with Alaska Public Radio that he and eight other...

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke spent more than $53,000 on three helicopter trips this summer, including one that allowed him to return to Washington in time for a horseback ride with Vice President Mike Pence, newly released records show. Records released by the Interior Department in response to a Freedom of Information Act request show Zinke spent more than $39,000 on...

Members of Congress from both parties on Tuesday called for an investigation into a $300 million contract awarded to a small company based in Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s hometown of Whitefish, Montana. The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority awarded the contract to Whitefish Energy Holdings to help crews restore transmission and distribution lines damaged or destroyed during Hurricane Maria. The...

Two of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet members say they do not plan to reimburse the government for charter flights costing tens of thousands of dollars. Representatives of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt say the trips were pre-approved by ethics officials in their respective agencies and were part of their official duties. Inspectors general for...

Former Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke was sworn in Wednesday as secretary of the Interior Department, assuming oversight of 400 million acres of public land, mostly in the West....
Vice President Mike Pence administered the oath of office hours after the Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s nomination of Zinke by a vote of 68-31. Several Democrats from Western states as well as...

An Algerian-Irish man accused of recruiting an American woman who called herself “Jihad Jane” and plotted to kill a Swedish artist has been arrested in Spain, officials said Friday....
Ali Charaf Damache was arrested Thursday in Barcelona based on a U.S. warrant issued stating he was a suspected recruiter for an Islamic extremist group, according to the Interior Department for the...