Harold Raymond "Skip" Finn (October 27, 1948 – May 17, 2018) was an American politician, who represented Minnesota's 4th district in the

Minnesota Senate The Minnesota Senate is the upper house of the Minnesota Legislature, Legislature of the U.S. state of Minnesota. At 67 members, half as many as the Minnesota House of Representatives, it is the largest upper house of any State legislature (Unite ...

as a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

Biography

Born in

Cass Lake, Minnesota Cass Lake is a city in Cass County, Minnesota, United States, located within the boundaries of the Leech Lake Indian Reservation. It is surrounded by Pike Bay Township. Cass Lake had a population of 675 in the 2020 census. It is notable a ...

, to a Norwegian father and a Native American mother, Finn was a member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. He attended

Moorhead State College Minnesota State University Moorhead (MSUM) is a public university in Moorhead, Minnesota, across the Red River of the North from Fargo, North Dakota. The school has an enrollment of 7,534 students in 2019 and 266 full-time faculty members. MSUM ...

(now Minnesota State University Moorhead) for three years, studying sociology and American Indian studies. He transferred to the University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1971, the first alumnus to receive a degree in American Indian studies. He later returned to the U of M Law School to receive his Juris Doctor in 1979. Finn worked as an Ojibwe attorney and owned a small business, then ran for a

seat in 1990. He became the first Native American to serve as a Minnesota senator in 1991. He was the

majority whip A whip is an official of a political party whose task is to ensure party discipline (that members of the party vote according to the party platform rather than their constituents, individual conscience or donors) in a legislature. Whips a ...

for the 78th and 79th Minnesota Legislatures. He served Minnesota's 4th state Senate district until his resignation in July 1996 after being convicted of fraud.

Fraud conviction

In October 1995, Finn and two others were brought up on charges of conspiring to steal about 1 million from the Leech Lake Band, as well as theft and mail fraud charges. Finn was sentenced to nearly five years in prison and fined $100,000.

Personal life

Finn married his wife Teri (née Becker) in 1980. They have two children. His daughter, Jamie Becker-Finn, currently serves in the

Minnesota House of Representatives The Minnesota House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the U.S. state of Minnesota's Minnesota Legislature, legislature. It operates in conjunction with the Minnesota Senate, the state's upper chamber, to write and pass legislation, whic ...

. Finn died at the University of Minnesota Medical Center in Minneapolis on May 17, 2018. He was 69.

References

External links

ObituaryBiography at the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Finn, Skip 1948 births 2018 deaths Democratic Party Minnesota state senators Minnesota State University Moorhead alumni University of Minnesota Law School alumni American people of Norwegian descent Leech Lake Band people People from Cass Lake, Minnesota Minnesota lawyers Minnesota politicians convicted of crimes 20th-century American lawyers Native American state legislators in Minnesota University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts alumni 20th-century members of the Minnesota Legislature