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 both waterbending and airbending.

History
In 100 ASC, a group of sandbenders managed to capture the Avatar's flying bison, Appa, despite his fierce resistance. In an attempt to escape, Appa caused the loss of a sand-sailer which the group had stolen from the Hami Tribe. They later traded the sky bison 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 – searched for the sand-sailer Appa had caused the sandbenders to lose. This sand-sailer had been recovered by Team Avatar, and at first, the sandbenders accused the team of theft, but Sha-Mo jumped to their defense. Toph recognized the voice of one of the thieves, Ghashiun, and deduced that he stole Appa. At first, Ghashiun denied this charge, but when Toph revealed that he had muzzled the bison, Aang became enraged and entered the continuous 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. The sandbenders subsequently offered to escort the group out of the desert.

Trivia

 * The sandbenders bear a distinct resemblance in dress and culture to the real-life Tuareg people, who inhabit the Saharan interior of North Africa.
 * They also bear a resemblance to the Tusken Raiders from Star Wars, who are less formally referred to as "Sand People". They also roam a desert and are hostile to local settlers.
 * The Hami Tribe's name matches that of 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 eclipse glasses 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.
 * Due to their living in the sun-drenched Si Wong Desert, skin cancer is a common ailment among the Sandbender Tribes.