Unfortunately that's quite common from what I understand. I dated a native girl for a while and the only word I can use to describe life on the rez is hopelessness. Your salutatorian was voluntary but I met a lot of others who also would have been successful but stayed back to help family or embrace their culture. The strongest memory I have was going to a cemetery there to see the gf's relatives' graves and then picking up beer cans from the dead grass in the middle of the cemetary as she mourned.

Edit: Changed two words for clarity.