Cherokee dominate Big Oil

I found a really cool GURPS site with a list of alternate worlds. Here's one of them:

The history of Cherokee is very similar to that of Homeline, except that religion played a much greater role in the treatment of Native American tribes, with the end result that instead of being marginalized, they are the key political and economic players throughout the Midwest and West United States. The Cherokee in particular dominate Big Oil and vie against the Arabs in OPEC in constant economic competition. The recession and gas shortage of the late seventies didn't happen, with the effect of having much closer Presidential races throughout the eighties, but no other significant historical effects have been found. There are a few cultural differences - tribal facepaint is common among corporate executives of all nationalities and specialties, the interstate highway system is less extensive but more broad (10-lane freeways are the norm, but there are far fewer of them), and, despite New Agey theories, pollution problems are pretty much the same.

In general, you can expect Texas and the southern Midwest to be much richer and more cosmpolitan, but other than that, Cherokee is identical to 1986 Homeline.

I particularly like the tribal facepaint thing. In general, this is a perfect example of a Fringeworld. So, could the Cherokee (and the other "civilized tribes") have managed to get more power this way?
 
Allowing Sequoyah to become a state seems the latest POD for this to be even remotely possible. Otherwise, it goes in pre-1900.
 
Okay, well ignore that for a moment, how can we have a situation where modern day corporate execs wear tribal face paint?

A really different '80s, I guess.
 
They're wearing the less traditional but more Wall Street conservative style of face paint.

From the controversially named hostile-takeover movie "Warpath":

wallstreet.jpg
 
One major problem is that it fails to consider the idea of the 1970s American Indian Movement (AIM). In OTL, with the growth of Native American identities, many Native American groups wanted recognition in the United Nations for Native American nations (c.1972), and were willing to seize federal buildings and military bases in an effort to win that recognition. This led to the Second Battle of Wounded Knee in 1973. In the 1980s the AIM also supported the Miskito Indians in Nicaragua. In 1994, many AIM leaders supported the rebellion in Chiapas.

In the ATL, imagine big oil money being used to support armed insurgency. This seems to work in the Arab World...
 
One major problem is that it fails to consider the idea of the 1970s American Indian Movement (AIM). In OTL, with the growth of Native American identities, many Native American groups wanted recognition in the United Nations for Native American nations (c.1972), and were willing to seize federal buildings and military bases in an effort to win that recognition. This led to the Second Battle of Wounded Knee in 1973. In the 1980s the AIM also supported the Miskito Indians in Nicaragua. In 1994, many AIM leaders supported the rebellion in Chiapas.

In the ATL, imagine big oil money being used to support armed insurgency. This seems to work in the Arab World...

This assumes that the suddenly well-off natives in the states would still sympathize with indigenous peoples elsewhere in the hemisphere who were at the bottom rung of the social strata in their countries.
 
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