Observers disagreed about whether Wovoka was a prophet or Christ himself, returned to earth, but at least some of the Sioux seeing him at Walker Lake apparently believed he was divine. Telling the audience that he bore wounds on his hands, feet, and back inflicted by white people, Wovoka explained that God blamed the whites for his crucifixion, and had sent his son Wovoka back to the Indians, since the whites were bad. If the soldiers tried to arrest him, he promised, he would open his arms wide and make them disappear, or the earth would swallow them.82
