Were the Cheyenne more like Meerkats or Lions?

Perhaps one great move by Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin was using animals to signify the noble houses.

This is an old trope- one used by almost every society, but Martin leaned into it with Power-Rangers-like abandon.

So- what similarities can we draw between leadership styles in various societies, and how they mirror leaderships styles in mammalian groups?