Los Angeles, March 20: A family of New Mexico Indians is suing the producers of a Steven Spielberg television series, claiming a stylist violated tribal customs by cutting a girl’s hair to make her look like a boy.

A lawsuit filed by the girl’s father, Danny Ponce, of the Mescalero Apache tribe, seeks $250,000 for emotional distress and $75,000 in damages from Turner Films, the makers of Into the West. “It’s part of our culture not to cut a girl’s hair until her coming of age ceremony,” said Ponce. “The only ones allowed to do that are the parents. Nobody asked for permission.”

According to the lawsuit, Christina, Ponce’s daughter, responded last March through her parents to a casting call for the six-episode mini-series, produced by Spielberg. During the three-day shoot the stylist cut the girl’s hair, the suit claims, “to make her look more ‘Indian’ and like a male Indian child because the casting call failed to produce sufficient young males of Indian heritage”.