Sandbender Tribes

"earth"

- Sandbenders, shoo! Away from the bison!

The Sandbender Tribes are a loosely-organized group of tribesmen indigenous to the Si Wong Desert in the Earth Kingdom. They travel across the sand dunes through the use of sand-sailers. The sandbenders are divided into tribes, one of them being the Hami Tribe. Due to the abundance of sand in their homeland, they have developed a special style of earthbending that involves bending loose sand instead of solid earth. This technique bears resemblance to waterbending and airbending.

History
In 100 ASC, a group of sandbenders kidnapped the Avatar's flying bison, Appa, who strongly resisted their capture. In his resistance, Appa caused the loss of a sand-sailer which the gang had stolen from the Hami Tribe. They later traded Appa to the beetle-headed merchants, who proceeded to sell him to a Fire Nation circus.

Days later, some sandbenders – among them the thieves that stole Appa – lost a sand-sailer in the desert, which Team Avatar recovered. At first, the sandbenders accused the team of theft, but their leader jumped to their defense. Toph recognized the voice of one of the thieves and deduced that he stole Appa. At first, Ghashiun denied this charge, but when Aang discovered that they muzzled the bison, he was sent into a rage and triggered the Avatar State. Fearful of Aang's rage-induced power, Ghashiun admitted his theft and stated that he traded the bison, who was probably, by that point, in Ba Sing Se.

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 also bear a distinct resemblance in dress and culture to the real-life Tuareg people who inhabit the Saharan interior of 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 and 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.
 * Since economic opportunities are limited in the desert, sandbenders get by however they can. They have been known to scavenge for dead animals, or even steal from passing travelers at the nearby cantina.