Bio

Dennis is native to Watford City and except for his time at University and Law School has spent his entire life in McKenzie County and Watford City. Dennis has a variety of interests. He studied anthropology and archaeology at University and participated in many field adventures and digs. He is known as the “local historian” for McKenzie County. Dennis is the author of the book “End of the Rope – The True Story of North Dakota’s Last Lynching” which is about the lynching of a mass murderer in McKenzie County in 1931. He has been active in many local history investigations and publications, including an editor for “Called to the Prairie: Life in McKenzie County, North Dakota 1915-1916,” which is the complete 1915-1916 journals of Richard C. Jahn that document the time he spent in McKenzie County from October 1915 to September 1916.

Dennis also enjoys many activities involving the outdoors that captivate his interest: Hunting big game and upland game, training dogs, horses, motorcycle riding, flying a 1941 Piper J3 Cub airplane, sailing, fishing, ATV adventures, canoeing and just general exploring.

After graduating from Watford City High School (1974), he attended the University of North Dakota and earned a B.A. from the honors program with a concentration in archaeology (1976). He attended law school from 1977-1980 and after completing law school he returned to North Dakota, where in 1980 he founded the law firm which is today Johnson & Sundeen.

Dennis considers one of his highest honors received while practicing law was following a successful resolution to a personal injury case for a Native American, after which the client’s family “adopted” him as a clan member in which he participated in a sweat lodge ceremony in which he was given the name “MaDa Gag Dee Ma Gah” – War Buffalo as his clan name.

Dennis was also successful in litigating a case against the federal government for McKenzie County in 1991 resulting in ownership of thousands of acres of royalty and an income stream of millions of dollars to McKenzie County. He has been involved in numerous landmark oil and gas decisions in North Dakota. In addition Dennis has been been legal counsel in numerous personal injury cases.

In 2016 Dennis was also bestowed with the prestigious “Light of Justice” award by the North Dakota Association for Justice. Dennis is past president and board member of the North Dakota Association of Justice.

He has also served on the North Dakota State Bar Association Board and currently is a member of the Pattern Jury Instruction Committee.

Dennis was State's Attorney for McKenzie County from 1982 to 2013.

Dennis E Johnson

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