From the beginning, Interior received tasks that didn't fit elsewhere - earning it the nickname: "The Department of Everything Else." During the push for the creation of the department, Treasury Secretary Robert Walker argued for the cause. He noted that Treasury's responsibilities with the General Land Office didn't fit in with his department's duties. Likewise, he noted that the War Department's Indian Affairs office and the State Department's Patent Office didn't mix with its main missions.

These agencies and more were added to Interior's portfolio. Interior's two most prominent - and tumultuous - agencies in those early days were the Indian Bureau and the General Land Office. The Land Office was at the center of managing, mapping, selling and distributing almost a billion acres of public land, often under the requirements of a flood of bills passed by Congress. The treatment of American Indians was problematic from the beginning, as Interior oversaw the culture clash that attempted to control Indians on reservations and convert them from their traditional lifestyles into European ways. Both the Land Office and the Indian Bureau were bedeviled by bureaucracy and corruption.

"More than any other responsibility, Indian affairs tried and troubled successive Secretaries of the Interior," wrote Robert M. Utley and Barry Mackintosh, Interior Department historians.

By the end of the 19th century, Interior's Geological Survey was mapping and cataloging the territories for commercial and other uses, while the department was handed oversight of Yellowstone - the country's first national park. The National Park Service was created in 1916 to formally organize the care and management of the growing number of national parks. The department also became more focused on the conservation of natural resources of the public lands, gradually shedding most of its other duties to new federal departments.

This focus is the main thrust of today's Interior Department. With the exception of its responsibilities toward American Indians - all of the department's eight bureaus are responsible for some facet of protecting, studying and conserving public land, water and mineral resources, and fish and wildlife.

Secretary Salazar has set out a six-pronged agenda for the department:

1. New Energy Frontier - A focus on projects that push past traditional fuels - natural gas, oil and coal - to development of alternate and renewable energy sources. These include solar energy, wind power, power generated by ocean waves and currents, increasingly efficient hydroelectric power, geothermal energy and biofuels.
2. America's Great Outdoors Initiative - Based on President Obama's presidential memorandum that tasked Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Council on Environmental Quality to lead an initiative to support community-level projects to "conserve outdoor spaces and to reconnect Americans to the outdoors."
3. Native American Nations - A reaffirmation to redress longstanding injustice and mismanagement in dealings with American Indians and to work toward their economic, social and educational welfare.
4. Climate Change - Protecting U.S. public land and waters from the effects of climate change, through conservation methods, scientific research and regional centers for study and coordination of efforts to mitigate the effects.
5. Water Challenges - The increasing pressures of population, development and climate change are pushing the limits of water resources. All bureaus of the department have assignments relating to water conservation and reclamation, as well as further study.
6. Youth in the Great Outdoors - Focuses on getting young people involved outdoors and in conservation projects, including hiring in the Youth Conservation Corps, Student Career Experience Program and other programs.

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