department of interior

A male greater sage-grouse stands among dry patches of rangeland grasses.

Local Stories

KUNR Today: Wolf Pack announces new athletic director, DOI funding sagebrush conservation projects

Shelby Herbert

Read or listen to news headlines for Wednesday, June 22, 2022.

Boxes of food fill the bottom and sides of the image. In the center is Mimi Krohn in a pink sweater, mask and blue gloves, picking up a box of food. Other volunteers behind her are standing in front of a table packing food.

Local Stories

KUNR Today: $500,000 in federal pandemic aid going toward Nevada food accessibility

Nick Stewart

Read or listen to news headlines for Friday, June 3, 2022.

An image of the exterior of Renown Health’s emergency services

News

KUNR Today: Renown CEO ousted, Interior official touts federal funding for wildland firefighting

Gustavo Sagrero

Read or listen to the morning news headlines for Tuesday, March 15, 2022.

Tommy Beaudreau, the deputy secretary of the Interior Department, visited Boise Monday to tour NIFC, debrief on the upcoming wildfire season and tout recent federal funding for wildfire resilience.

Interior Dept official visits western cities to monitor wildfire challenges and tout federal funding

Madelyn Beck

The Interior Department’s Deputy Secretary is visiting several places around the West to tout federal funding for wildland firefighting. That included a stop in Boise on Monday, where he toured the National Interagency Fire Center and attended a briefing on this year’s upcoming fire season.

News

'They just didn't care': Families' grief renewed as Interior reviews deaths at tribal jails

Robyn Vincent

A new report commissioned by the Interior Department provides a window into the fatal mistreatment of inmates in its tribal jails. The review comes on the heels of a Mountain West News Bureau and NPR investigation that found a pattern of neglect and misconduct contributing to at least 19 deaths at tribal detention centers overseen by the Bureau of Indian Affairs since 2016.

Darren Cruzan at his retirement ceremony in May 2021. He was a top law enforcement official for the Interior Department and the Bureau of Indian Affairs for nearly a decade.

U.S. Headlines

Interior Department hires former top cop to review jail deaths on his watch

Nate Hegyi

The Interior Department ordered a review of tribal jail deaths, but the man who got the contract is a former agency official who oversaw the jails when some of the deaths occurred.

An empty corridor at the Navajo Nation Detention in Shiprock, Tuesday, April 13, 2021.

'The crumbs': federal neglect leaves tribal jails in disrepair—if they're open at all

Savannah Maher

After months of repeated written questions and public records requests from NPR and the Mountain West News Bureau, Interior Department officials said they now plan to contract with an outside agency to examine the troubles plaguing tribal detention centers.

Keith Skunkcap stands for a portrait outside his home in Cutbank, Montana, on April 25, 2021.

A mother’s death in tribal jail highlights need for medical care on site

Nate Hegyi

The National Congress of American Indians has urged the federal government to place medical personnel in its tribal jails, arguing that the current situation "exacerbates the already challenging problem of health disparities for American Indians."

Carlos Yazzie’s brother, Chris, stands next to the remains of their childhood home on the Navajo Nation.

Carlos Yazzie needed a hospital. Instead, he ended up dead in a tribal jail

Nate Hegyi

"The corrections officers are basically holding these lives in their hands with their decisions."

Wilma Fleury sits in her home in Browning, Montana on April 24, 2021.

'A national disgrace': years after promised reforms, people keep dying at federal tribal jails

Nate Hegyi

Willy Pepion had a cracked skull, and guards at the federal jail on the Blackfeet Reservation dismissed his pleas for help. He died in his cell. Three hours went by until anyone noticed.