A/HRC/36/46/Add.1 53. The proposed Keystone XL pipeline project also threatens harmful environmental conditions on tribal lands, despite procedural requirements for assessments of environmental impacts. Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (1970), the Department of State Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs issued an environmental impact statement identifying the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation and the Rosebud Indian Reservation as areas that stood to be affected by the project. The Special Rapporteur is concerned about the potential impacts to indigenous peoples that may result from the Presidential memorandum of 24 January 2017 inviting TransCanada to resubmit its construction and operation permit application to the Department of State and directing the Secretary of State to expedite the review process. She fears that tribal interests are even more likely to be ignored in the expedited review process. 3. Sexual and gender-based violence 54. The Special Rapporteur was pleased to learn about the progress made in the implementation of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act (2013), adopted following the visit of the previous Special Rapporteur in 2012.26 The Act was intended to address flaws in the jurisdictional framework in Indian country which left acts of domestic and dating violence perpetrated by non-indigenous persons unprosecuted. The Act enables tribes to exercise “special domestic violence criminal jurisdiction” over non-Indian perpetrators who commit crimes of domestic or dating violence or violation of certain protection orders in the Indian country of the participating tribe. As a result, in 2016, the Department of Justice Office of Violence Against Women received its first appropriation of $2.5 million to implement the grant programme which enabled seven tribes to exercise the new special domestic violence criminal jurisdiction. Additional policy tools under the Act increased the number of federal prosecutions of 122 defendants in 2015 and, in that year also, prosecutors obtained 20 convictions out 28 cases filed against defendants in Indian country under the domestic assault by a habitual offender statute. 55. The strength of indigenous peoples in the United States is in large part measured by the vitality of their communities. Indigenous communities are at their strongest when women and girls have full and free access to social, cultural, spiritual and political institutions. As the Special Rapporteur noted in her thematic report on the rights of indigenous women and girls, 27 the history and pattern of violence against indigenous women and girls have long hindered their ability to fully realize their rights in all domains for several reasons. First, the history of colonization and, in the United States, the history of establishing Indian communities in extremely rural and under-resourced areas, has in many respects allowed violence against indigenous women to occur without adequate response, ability to report or access to effective redress. Second, indigenous women often experience multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and marginalization based on their gender, class, ethnic origin and socioeconomic circumstances. 56. Taking into account the principles set forth in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the rights of women and girls must be specifically considered in the context of energy development and resource extraction because of their importance as the backbone of indigenous societies, as well as their increased risk of experiencing poverty, abuse, historical trauma and lack of access to education.28 While there is a long history of exploitation of Native women and girls that goes hand in hand with resource development on Indian lands in the United States, the Special Rapporteur’s comments in the present report refer specifically to situations ocurring during periods of rapid development. 57. The Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, home to the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, sits on the Bakken Formation, one of the most productive development regions in recent years. Rapid development of the Bakken Formation since 2011 has attracted thousands of oil workers to North Dakota. One of the effects of the influx of oil and gas 26 27 28 12 A/HRC/21/47/Add.1. A/HRC/30/41. United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, arts. 21-22.