She packs freezer bags in the car to keep frozen goods from melting in the heat of her trunk. On the return trip, her son sometimes sleeps in the backseat, so she cranks up a heavy-metal and punk radio station to stay awake. This is actually an improvement for her: When she still lived on her tribe’s reservation, the trip was an hour longer.

For Gomez and other citizens of the Hoh Tribe, hours-long trips to grocery stores are routine. The tribe, which has a little over 300 citizens, sits by the Hoh River on the Olympic Peninsula, near Olympic National Park. Gomez lived on the reservation until late 2018, when she moved to Forks for health-related reasons. Her eldest son still lives on the reservation next door to Gomez’s mother.

During the week, Gomez drives an hour south of her home to the reservation for work, where she’s the tribe’s community health representative and recently elected Tribal Chair.