I have had the mixed pleasure of overcoming depression, and I know that it darkens the very sky when you are in it's grip.
For me, overcoming this meant throwing myself at something larger, to begin, and was sustained, once I was free, by the very refusal to accept victimhood that I expressed above.
You don't need a valid reason for self-pity. If you indulge in it, you cripple yourself. That has been my experience. We cast about for reasons after that.
I don't know how I would apply myself if I were one of your kin. I went for military service, personally. Many people are philosophically indisposed to that path these days, and the forces won't take people who have sought help.
I view it as one of the central challenges of our time. I think we need to institute a secular monastic system, where drifting people can anchor themselves and find community. A res kinda is that, or could be.
The people on the Res are justified in their harsh feelings toward the society outside, but again, to indulge in them is to harm themselves. I wonder if maybe the best way to flourish is to bring in outsiders and break bread with them.
I'll tell you a secret, and maybe you just know; white people have an abiding respect for the pride of the natives. This is not universal, and it sure hasn't translated to good policy, but it has been true all along. I am reminded of DeToqueville's discussion about the ladies at the watering hole. Even way back then, the ferocious pride of the native girl was so salient that he had to write about it. He saw it as the seed of her people's destruction.
I see it as the true badge, tempered by war and hate and winter... I hope your kin all stand tall and be the envy of the rat-race white men once again. I have heard the First Nations referred to with great respect. I think they will roar back and inspire envy again in their greatness, if they look to overcoming themselves and not the vicious world outside.
Depression is a runaway response to a legitimate feeling. Many emotional problems are. It is ourselves that we must overcome.