Troeh collaborated with a number of important Native American activists in Washington, including her older sister, Betsy Trick, Pearl Warren, and University of Washington anthropology professor Erna Gunther. Together the women founded an organization called the American Indian Women's Service League (AIWSL) in 1958. The American Indian Women's Service League was created in response to a growing trend of Native Americans moving from reservations and to large cities beginning in the 1950s. The main purpose of the league was to help counsel newly arrived Native Americans on the cultural differences and new challenges of modern American urban life that were not faced in their reservations.