An Albuquerque lawsuit claims a young Mescalero Apache girl's hair was cut by a TV stylist during the filming of Steven Spielberg's "Into the West."

ADVERTISEMENT

Mescalero Apache tradition forbids the cutting of hair so soon before a girl's Coming of Age ceremony. Without permission, a stylist lopped off the hair of then 8-year-old Christina Ponce to make her look like an American Indian boy, claimed the suit filed in U.S. District Court.

The girl -- who was an extra on the TNT miniseries -- and her family suffered emotional distress from the "intentional, outrageous and reckless conduct" of the unnamed set stylist, the lawsuit charged.

"They did this to a little girl right on the cusp of her Indian maiden ceremony," attorney J. Robert Beauvais told the Albuquerque Tribune. "Some people may think this is a tempest in a teapot, but they do not realize this is like an Indian bar mitzvah."

TNT refused to comment on the suit.