1st and 2nd Place Awards in Drawing, University of New Mexico Kiva Club Nizhoni Days Art Show (1976)
Writers Forum at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, Colorado (1977)
Outstanding Young Women of America (1978)
National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowships (1978)
1st Place in Poetry in the Santa Fe Festival of the Arts (1980)
Outstanding Young Women of America (1984)
New Mexico Music Awards (1987)
NEH Summer Stipend in American Indian Literature and Verbal Arts, University of Arizona (1987)
Arizona Commission on the Arts Poetry Fellowship (1989)
The American Indian Distinguished Achievement in the Arts Award (1990)
Delmore Schwartz Memorial Award, New York University: In Mad Love and War (1991)
Oakland PEN, Josephine Miles Poetry Award (1991)
William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America (1991)
American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation: In Mad Love and War (1991)
Oakland PEN, Josephine Miles Poetry Award (1991)
Honorary Doctorate from Benedictine College (1992)
Woodrow Wilson Fellowship at Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vermont (1993)
Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of The Americas (1995)
Oklahoma Book Award: The Woman Who Fell from the Sky (1995)
Bravo Award from the Albuquerque Arts Alliance (1996)
Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers Musical Artist of the Year: Poetic Justice (1997)
New Mexico Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts (1997)
Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund Writer's Award for work with nonprofit group Atlatl in bringing literary resources to Native American communities (1998)
Finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award: Reinventing the Enemy's Language (1998)
National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowships (1998)
Writer of the Year/children's books by the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers for The Good Luck Cat (2001)
Oklahoma Book Award for Poetry How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems 1975–2001 (2003)
Arrell Gibson Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Oklahoma Center How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems 1975–2001 (2003)
Storyteller of the Year Native Joy for Real by the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers. (2004)
Writer of the Year – Poetry How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems 1975–2001 (2004)
Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers "Writer of the Year" for the script A Thousand Roads (2005)
United States Artists Rasmuson Fellows Award (2008)
Eagle Spirit Achievement Award (2009)
Nammy Native American Music Award (2009)
Mvskoke Women's Leadership Award (2011)
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (2014)
Wallace Stevens Award in Poetry by the Academy of American Poets Board of Chancellors (2015)
Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize (2017)
United States Poet Laureate (2019)
Inductee, National Women's Hall of Fame (2021)