

MariJo was chosen as Minority Business Person in Services for the Year, Western NC, 2007. She was also chosen as Wordcrafter of the Year in 2003-2004 and 2006-2007 by the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers; honored with the prestigious award of North Carolina's Distinguished Woman of the Year in the Arts in 1998; and chosen by Native Peoples/Indian Artists magazine as one of the top five American Indian writers of the 21ST century (June/July 2000 issue).
Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers chose her as creative prose fiction Writer of the Year in 2002 for her book Red Woman With Backward Eyes and Other Stories. She was invited to attend the 2004 Library of Congress National Book Festival
to present her novel, The Diamond Doorknob.
