Group sues to bar team nickname

CHICAGO -- An American Indian group is suing to make one northern Illinois school district stop using "Redskins" as a team mascot.

The Illinois Native American Bar Association filed a federal lawsuit Friday against the Huntley school system to remove the nickname in use since 1928. The Huntley School Board voted last April to retain the mascot for both its high school and middle school.

The lawsuit seeks to stop the school board from using "a racial slur, and 'redskins' in particular, as a public school-sponsored name." Most school board members have said they will not spend public money to defend a lawsuit.

Several schools around Illinois already have responded to a call from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to consider dropping American Indian images as mascots.