Sandbender Tribes

The Sandbenders are tribes of Earthbenders who specialize in controlling sand. Little is known about their history.

Sandbenders are the indigenous people of the Si Wong Desert. There are different tribes of Sandbenders, including the Hami Tribe. They have developed a special style of Earthbending, that revolves around bending the sand of their homeland. Because of sand's loose nature, Sandbending techniques resemble Water and Airbending more than they do standard Earthbending. Sandbenders travel the Si Wong Desert in their Sand Sailers, which they move with a tornado of sand. They are distrustful and dismissive of foreigners, and some Sandbenders make a habit of stealing from them, most notably Ghashiun and his gang. One tradition of the tribes is that if they have wronged strangers in some way, they must give the strangers hospitality.

Trivia

 * The Sandbenders bear a slight resemblance to the Tusken Raiders (Sand People) from the Star Wars universe, who in turn were inspired by the Fremen desert dwellers from the Dune novels. They were probably inspired by the real Bedouin Arab tribes that inhabit the Middle East and North Africa.
 * The Hami Tribe may be named after the Hami Desert, a section of the Gobi Desert in China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region.
 * The goggles they wear to shade their eyes from the sun, (or just keep sand out), look very similar to the ones the invasion force wore during the Invasion of the Fire Nation on the Day of Black Sun.