Barstow Attorney Dennis Whittlesey now says tribes can't build casinos outside of their ancestral territories

Dennis Whittlesey has represented the City of Detroit and others including the City of Barstow, California where two tribes from opposite ends of California (Big Lagoon Rancheria from Humboldt County and the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians from San Diego County) are trying to get approvals to build side-by-side casinos up to 750 miles from their reservations that would be developed and managed by the same Detroit casino syndicators who were behind Detroit's MotorCity Casino. Those syndication interests are also behind plans to build a Bay Mills Indian Tribe casino 350 miles from its reservation in Port Huron, Michigan.

Oddly enough, there's no public record in Barstow or Port Huron in which Whittlesey advised clients or is on the record to indicate that he didn't believe casinos would be built outside a tribe's ancestral territories. Quite the contrary. In Barstow Whittlesey negotiated several municipal service agreements with two tribes that have no histories in the Mojave Desert area surrounding Barstow and reportedly worked behind the scenes in an attempt to block a tribe with ancestral ties to the Barstow area from moving forward with casino plans there.

Now Whittlesey, who recently came to represent the town of Middleborough, Massachusetts says tribes casn't go outside their aboriginal territories for the purpose of building casinos.

The following published 6.13.07 in the Boston Globe:

"Dennis Whittlesey, a Washington lawyer representing Middleborough in the negotiations, questioned the plausibility of allowing the tribe to open a casino in Boston. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, he pointed out, was aimed at restricting a tribe's gaming operations to the area considered the tribe's historical lands. Those lands extend from Mashpee throughout Southeastern Massachusetts.

" 'The chances of a casino in Boston is zero,' said Whittlesey, who has specialized in Indian gaming for more than 30 years.

"In three cases nationally, tribes with reservations have been allowed to purchase land outside their historical areas to open a casino. The Bush administration has announced it will not grant any such petitions for the remainder of its term in office.

" 'The Mashpee cannot go open a casino in downtown Chicago, and they cannot go open one in downtown Boston,' Whittlesey said."

This past year Whittlesey joined the Michigan based Dickinson Wright law firm in which former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer is chairman.