In this six-part interview, Eloy Martinez describes to Kakoli Mitra his activism work after he moved from Colorado to the San Francisco Bay (California, United States) in the 1960s. He speaks about being a part of the building trade union and being involved with the Intertribal Friendship House, one of the oldest centers set up to serve Native Americans who were lured away to the cities from their reservations with promises of jobs by the U.S. government during the termination policies (a series of laws from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s to assimilate Native Americans and take their resources). Through his position in the building union, which at the time discriminated against non-Euro workers, he helped many Native Americans get into the union and earn good salaries and pensions. Elder Eloy also describes the first time he met Richard Oakes. Richard Oakes was a Mohawk who helped end the U.S. government’s termination policies and who led the occupation of Alcatraz Island (1969-1971). Along with others, Elder Eloy spent three months occupying Alcatraz. The occupation drew different Native Americans from across the U.S. and was a great unifying force, catapulting the creation of movements like Indians of All Tribes and the American Indian Movement and a gradual change in policies. After the occupation, reservations were returned to tribes, and Native Americans have begun reviving their diverse ways of living. For several decades, Elder Eloy has been in charge of the fire on Alcatraz during the annual Indigenous Peoples’ Day in October/November.