Tusken Raiders
| Tuskens, "Sand People", Ghorfas | |
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| Attributes | |
|---|---|
| Leader(s) | Tribal leaders |
| Home world | Tatooine |
| Language | Tusken |
| First appearance | Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) |
Tusken Raiders (less formally referred to as Sand People or simply as Tuskens), are fictional creatures in the Star Wars universe. They are characterized as a nomadic warrior race that lives on the planet Tatooine.
Tusken Raiders first appear in Star Wars when a pack of them attack Luke Skywalker in the Jundland Wastes and knock him unconscious. However, just as they are going through Luke's landspeeder, Obi-Wan Kenobi frightens them off by imitating a Krayt dragon's mating call and rescues Luke.
They briefly appear in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, taking shots at the Pod Race drivers, and again in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, set 22 years before Star Wars; in this film, they have kidnapped Anakin Skywalker's mother, Shmi, and tortured her for a month. Anakin eventually finds her, but she is mortally injured and dies in his arms. Seized by a violent rage, Anakin slaughters (like animals) the entire tribe, including the women and children.
According to Star Wars expanded universe sources, Tusken Raiders are named after Fort Tusken, an early Old Republic mining settlement in which all of the settlers were overwhelmed, captured, or killed by Tusken Raiders, then referred to as "Sand People". The attack probably occurred due to the fort's placement over one of the Raiders' holy wells.
Specialists studying the past of the Tusken Raiders also used the term Ghorfa to denote an earlier sedentary phase of their culture, and lastly Kumumgah, for the earliest stratum of sentient civilization on the planet, believed by some to represent a common ancestry shared by the Ghorfas (the Tuskens) and the Jawas.
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