House 1963-66 (District 57); House 1967-72 (District 65A); House 1973-76 (District 10A)
Party when first elected: Nonpartisan Election-Conservative Caucus
Counties Served: Becker, Otter Tail, Wadena
Spouse: Married Children: Five children Family Members Who Have Served in the Minnesota Legislature:
Several sources list him as the first American Indian elected to the Minnesota Legislature. This is not true, there were others who served before him."DeGroat is a descendant of the East Coast Brotherton tribe...he was born on the Morton Indian Reservation and grew up on the White Earth Reservation." (Session Weekly, April 28, 1989, p. 7)"Upon filing for election, [in 1962] DeGroat announced he would be a Conservative candidate saying, 'I am a Conservative. There is a need for conservative practices in government, for sound fiscal government.'...Though he consistently caucused with conservatives, he regarded himself as an independent. ...by 1974...DeGroat had reluctantly joined the Republican rank and file." (Fargo-Moorhead Forum, August 13, 1989)He was a member of the Republican Party.He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Minnesota Senate in the 1976 election.He was an unsuccessful unendorsed Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party candidate for the Minnesota House of Representatives in the 1980 election.He died, of cancer, in a hospital in Fargo, North Dakota.Religion provided by the Catholic Bulletin, 3/21/1975.
Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, 645 State Office Building, Saint Paul, MN 55155