Harold Raymond "Skip" Finn (October 27, 1948 – May 17, 2018) was an American politician, who represented Minnesota's 4th district in the state's senate for the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

Biography

Born in Cass Lake, Minnesota, 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. The school has an enrollment of 7,534 students in 2019 and 266 full-time faculty members. MSUM is a part of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities ...

(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 The University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts (CLA) is the largest college of the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. Established in 1868, the College of Liberal Arts offers more than 65 majors and 70 minors to its more t ...

, 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 Minnesota Senate office in 1990. He became the first Native American to serve as a Minnesota senator in 1991. He was the majority whip for the 78th and

79th Minnesota Legislature The seventy-ninth Minnesota Legislature first convened on January 3, 1995. The 67 members of the Minnesota Senate were elected during the General Election of November 3, 1992, and the 134 members of the Minnesota House of Representatives were elec ...

s. 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 had two children. His daughter, Jamie Becker-Finn, currently serves in the Minnesota House of Representatives. 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 Ojibwe 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