People controlling more than 1,800 deposit accounts have reported removing more than $57 million from DAPL banks involved in the financing of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

In addition, at least four tribes have been reported as disinvesting from the financial institutions involved in funding DAPL, though the amounts involved have not been divulged.

Of the 1,806 accounts self-reported closed as of February 6, per a tally maintained by website defunddapl.org, nearly a third, 564, were with Wells Fargo Bank. JPMorgan Chase was second, at 431, followed by Bank of America, 372, and Citigroup, 132.

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Smaller numbers were reported for TD Bank, ING Bank, HSBC, PNC, and US Bank.

Amounts defunded include $30 million at Wells, $8 million at Bank of America, $6 million at Chase, $3.3 million at TD Bank, $2.8 million at US Bank, and $2.5 million at Citigroup.

A person identifying himself only as Caleb said defunddapl.org was an effort by, “allies at Standing Rock [who want] to build widespread awareness in young people about the role banks play in financing the environmental and social degradation of our planet and that we all have the power to stop them. We are building coalitions in cities to work on civic level engagement and building grassroots campaigns to push big companies to like REI to defund banks which profit off DAPL and other extractive investments.”

In addition to the website, information on the disinvestments can be found on a digital billboard in New York City’s Times Square.

The billboard, said to be on display through the end of March, features the “Water Is Life” slogan as well as “We Are Water Protectors,” “Stand with Standing Rock,” and “Divest from the Dakota Pipeline.”

Sponsors are said to include Sacred Stone Camp, Honor the Earth, Indigenous Environmental Network, and International Indigenous Youth Council.

A video of the billboard can be found here.

The tribes reported to be agreeing to disinvest from the DAPL banks involved in funding the pipeline include the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North/South Dakota, adjacent to the pipeline construction, the Nez Perce tribe of Idaho, the Mille Lacs Ojibwe of Minnesota, and the Muckleshoot Tribe of Washington state.

In addition to being the brunt of the anger of the largest number of individual de-funders, Wells Fargo was in the crosshairs of an effort to get the city of Seattle to disinvest as much as $3 billion worth of business with the big bank.

An 8-0 committee vote last week advanced a bill calling for the city to not renew its depository contract with Wells when it runs out at the end of 2018, and to not invest in any Wells securities. On Tuesday, February 7, the Seattle City Council completed the divestiture process.

“Wells has not in any way matched the values of this city,” one committee member said. The full council meeting was scheduled for February 6 but had been postponed, apparently due to a snowstorm.

Wells Fargo has released a statement saying it “understands the social and environmental concerns associated with projects such as the Dakota Access Pipeline” and that it is “one of 17 financial institutions involved in financing the DAPL. The loans we have provided represent less than 5 percent of the total.”

The bank touted its record as a leader in the financing of renewable energy and clean technology. “We have supported the evolution of energy markets toward cleaner forms of generation by investing more than $52 billion in environmentally sustainable businesses since 2012. In 2015, projects owned in whole or in part by Wells Fargo produced 10 percent of all solar photovoltaic and wind energy generated in the U.S.”

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It also lauded its role in providing financing to tribes and Native people, in allmore than 200 tribal and Native entities in 27 states, including tribal community development projects.”

Home Mortgage Disclosure Act figures for 2015 from the ComplianceTech (McLean, Virginia) LendingPatterns database show that Wells was the second biggest mortgage lender to Natives in Seattle that year. Its volume was $2.1 million, through seven loans, about 11 percent of the total. (In all, 30 lenders loaned $18 million to American Indians in the city of Seattle.) It also was second in mortgage lending to Natives nationwide, at $415.3 million, or about seven percent of the total.

Perhaps coincidentally, Wells Fargo has just announced a series of donations totaling $500,000 to nonprofit groups in the Seattle area. Its NeighborhoodLIFT program will give $100,000 apiece to Capitol Hill Housing, Downtown Emergency Service Center, El Centro de la Raza, Homestead Community Land Trust, and Mercy Housing Northwest.

The money comes from a $5 million commitment by Wells Fargo to boost local homeownership and revitalize neighborhoods. “NeighborhoodLIFT will create hundreds of homeowners in Seattle-King County through homebuyer education plus matching down payment assistance grants up to $7,500. More than $3.3 million in down payment assistance grants are still available.”

While the “17 lenders” number Wells quotes appears frequently in news accounts, a filing by pipeline company Energy Transfer Partners indicates the number of lenders is higher than that, or at least was as of 2015.

A Securities and Exchange Commission filing by Energy Transfer Partners LP of Delaware in 2015 listed 26 DAPL banks that had committed a total of $3.75 billion towards a revolving credit facility for the DAPL project. Wells was one of the three DAPL banks with the biggest commitment of $185 million, or 4.93 percent. The others pledging that same amount were Bank of America and Royal Bank of Scotland.

Nine other DAPL banks, including JPMorgan Chase Bank, pledged $175 million in financing. Wells Fargo was listed as the Administrative Agent on the Feb. 10, 2015 filing, which memorialized an increase of $1.25 billion from the original financing of $2.5 billion. (See related story for full list of lenders and amounts.)

Eight new lenders joined the original consortium for the 2015 filing, including BNP Paribas Bank, which committed $159 million.

News reports say DNB Bank of Norway is “reconsidering” its financing for the project.