---
title: XVI. Custer’s Heart — Wigwam stories told by North American Indians · full text with trees
description: XVI. Custer’s Heart, «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: (Dakota, 1895)
---

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# XVI. Custer’s Heart

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XVI. Custer’s Heart of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd: the whole text, 13 sentences and 285 words. The small number after every sentence leads to its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself.

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(Dakota, 1895)[1](1/ "tree and pragmatics")

The red man remembers the brave paleface as well as the warrior of his own race and color.[2](2/ "tree and pragmatics")

The wild charge of Custer and his men and their utter defeat will be often told and retold in the wigwams of the tribes who fought him.[3](3/ "tree and pragmatics")

The Indians claim that the strange plant that is now found on the Custer battle ground has been created by some spirit which knew of the mighty courage of the white brave with yellow hair.[4](4/ "tree and pragmatics")

This plant is called Custer’s Heart.[5](5/ "tree and pragmatics") It has long, slender leaves curved exactly like a saber; the edges of these leaves are so sharp that they cut the hand that attempts to tear them from the plant.[6](6/ "tree and pragmatics")

If you touch the plant you will feel a chill, for each leaf is cold.[7](7/ "tree and pragmatics") The blossoms come in the hot summer days.[8](8/ "tree and pragmatics") The flowers are heart-shaped and yellow as gold, with a center of scarlet that looks like a drop of blood.[9](9/ "tree and pragmatics")

But whoever plucks the flower must hold it gently, for if it should be crushed, the scarlet stain, the Indians claim, could never be washed away.[10](10/ "tree and pragmatics")

It may be that this flower is known only in the dreams of Indian braves, but the new legend shows how the memory of the brave general lives in the hearts of his red enemies.[11](11/ "tree and pragmatics") It shows that it is always in the heart of man to admire the brave deeds of another, even though the hero is an enemy.[12](12/ "tree and pragmatics")

This story tells us also that there are those among the red men who, while they may be dressed in paint, buckskin, and blankets, have thoughts like those expressed by the white man’s poets.[13](13/ "tree and pragmatics")

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