LOS ANGELES – A family of New Mexico Indians is suing the producers of a Steven Spielberg TV 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 an unnamed stylist and 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 Mr. Ponce. “The only ones allowed to do that are the parents. Nobody asked for permission.”

According to the lawsuit, Christina, Mr Ponce’s daughter, responded last March through her parents to a casting call for the six-episode mini-series, produced by Mr. 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.”

The Mescalero tradition forbids cutting a girl’s hair as she approaches puberty.

To prepare for womanhood, Mescalero girls participate in a ceremony that requires their hair to reach the waist. Before it was cut, Mr. Ponce said his daughter’s hair fell midway down her back. It has since grown to her collar. “This has to do with the culture of a tribal member,” he said. “It was cut very short above her ears. She looked like a boy.”

The maker of the mini-series said before the show’s launch they were aiming to be as authentic as possible.

But Mr. Ponce said the filmmakers should try to be more culturally sensitive. He said: “Just because you’re wealthy, you don’t do something without checking first.”