Aquino was one of the key organizers of the occupation of Fort Lawton in 1970, which led to the establishment of the Daybreak Star Cultural Center in Discovery Park.
[1] Early in her career as a community activist, Aquino advocated on behalf of Native American foster children.
[a] She recruited Native American families to act as foster parents and raised political action funds.
[4] Aquino later brought the "Teepee Talk" column to radio, with a weekly program for Native American issues airing in the late 1970s on KRAB-FM (now KSER).
During the civil disobedience protests that came to be known as the Fish Wars, Aquino was a key figure in early organizing efforts.
Native American groups asserted that the property should be returned to them, citing 1865 treaties guaranteeing "the reversion of surplus military land to their original landowners".
On March 8, 1970,[1] as activists faced off against the police and National Guard, Aquino scaled the hill and climbed over a barbed wire fence.
[1][8] The occupation ultimately led to the city of Seattle agreeing to lease 20 acres of the Fort Lawton property to the United Indians of All Tribes.
She and fellow AIWSL member Tillie Cavanaugh were called the "Road Runners", visiting spiritual conferences and meeting with other Native American Catholics around the United States to advocate for the canonization of the Algonquin–Mohawk woman Kateri Tekakwitha.
[1] In 1984, Aquino and her friend Jeanie Raymond travelled to Nicaragua on a trip organized by El Centro de la Raza.