AMHERST - A small group of protesters linked their arms through 55-gallon drums and sat in the frigid cold outside the downtown Bank of America branch for more than an hour-and-a-half on Saturday morning, calling on customers to move their money to smaller institutions.

At 9 a.m., three protesters describing themselves as "guerrilla theater activists" covered themselves in prop oil and sat under a sign decrying the bank's funding of the Dakota Access pipeline, a controversial North Dakota energy project. A handful of others taped off the area and distributed literature.

The bank entrance remained unobstructed.

The protesters are targeting financial institutions funding the $3.7 billion, 1,200-mile-long pipeline that snakes through four states. Supporters tout hundreds of millions of dollars in expected tax revenue on oil sales, and the benefits from thousands of construction jobs.

Marc Osten, of Pelham, said he was answering the call of Native Americans who are trying to stop the pipeline from going through the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, located in North Dakota and South Dakota.

Dakota Access pipeline protesters block Bank of America entrance in downtown Amherst. Posted by MassLive.com on Saturday, March 4, 2017

"We have choices what to do with our money, and one of our choices is to put our money into local credit unions and other banks," said Osten, imploring people to stop doing business with Bank of America, TD Bank, Wells Fargo, Chase and Citigroup. "These banks only operate on one thing: Greed. So taking your money out sends a message."

Osten was joined by Ardie Lester, of New Salem, and Steve Botkin, of Amherst. Before the protest, they delivered a letter to the bank manager, "emphasizing that their action was not a personal attack against any bank employee, but rather demanding change from the institution as a whole," according to a statement sent to the media.

An Amherst Fire Department official spoke briefly with two other demonstrators, telling them that the protest could needlessly tie up public safety resources. Asked later about that official's concerns, Lester said, "I don't feel like I have much of a choice."

"The pipelines are endangering the drinking water of millions of people," said Lester.

"Bank of America directly funds companies ... that are knowingly destroying the planet," said Dineen O'Rourke, of Amherst, who passed out information about how to transfer money from a major bank to a local credit union. "We're not just telling people what's wrong with that, we're giving them the alternative."

Protesters said they were prepared to be arrested if necessary, but it didn't come to that. They packed up at around 10:30 a.m.