A race of nomadic desert mutants on Tatooine who roam the Jundland Wastes, the Tusken Raiders were often called Sand People. The Tusken Raider name came from the humans who lived at Fort Tusken, and survived the aliens' first attack there. Tusken Raiders were believed to have descended from the Ghorfas, but there was no hard evidence to link the two. A few scientists claimed that Sandpeople had human origins, but the autopsies done on what few dead that were left behind revealed cyborg eyes and other non-human characteristics. Still other xenobiologists claimed that the Tusken Raiders were descended form the Kumumgah, thereby sharing a common origin with the Jawas. Their origins - either native to Tatooine or transplanted - were lost even to the Sand People themselves, although there were legends of a time when Tatooine was covered with grasslands. These legends held that the Builders - a group of Rakatan explorers - arrived on Tatooine and tried to enslave the ancient Tusken Raiders, who had discovered space travel and angered the Builders. They fought back and won their freedom, but the Rakatans burned the grasslands in retaliation, leaving Tatooine a desert wasteland. This story also claims that the root of the Tusken Raiders' intense hatred of other beings derived from their war with the Builders, although written history points to a more recent event.

Some 400 years before the attack on Fort Tusken, the desert bandit Alkhara slaughtered a group of Tusken Raiders who had befriended him. This was generally considered the source of the Raiders' anger and mistrust. It was also believed that Alkhara's own attitudes spawned many of the myths and legends that surrounded the Tusken Raiders, including the belief that they flayed their victims alive before throwing the carcasses to their banthas. In battle, the Tusken Raiders were rumored to spit streams of blood at their victims, but this characterization was later attributed to superstitious moisture farmers.

The average Tusken Raider was a humanoid being who dressed in heavy cloth robes, leaving no part of their body exposed to the elements. The males covered their heads with strips of cloth that held a breath mask and eye protection on their faces, while the females and the children wore full helmets. Only an individual's mate was allowed to see them with their coverings removed. The Tusken Raiders learned how to train the banthas native to Tatooine as mounts, forming deep and lasting bonds with their chosen bantha. A marauding group of Raiders would always rode them single file, to hide their numbers. Each individual worked with the same bantha for life. When a mount was killed or died, the rider was left to wander the desert alone. If the bantha's spirit deemed it so, the rider would be befriended by another bantha. Otherwise, the rider would die in the sands. On the other hand, if a rider was killed or died, its bantha was turned out into the desert.

Although the Tusken Raiders were aggressive and violent by nature, they had deep-seated traditions that were tightly coupled to their everyday lives. Young individuals were required to prove their adulthood in various physical activities, the hardest of which was the manhood ritual of hunting down a krayt dragon. Because the they had no written language, the most revered member of a clan or tribe was the storyteller. He knew the life-story of every member of his clan, and also knew the clan's history. The storyteller was required to memorize the histories word-for-word, eliminating any chance for misinterpretation or distortion. Apprentice storytellers often ware more hard-pressed to prove themselves than warriors, for a single mistake in reciting the histories meant instant death.

As violent as their nature was, the Tusken Raiders stayed as far from the moisture farmers as the farmers did them. There were occasional attacks on the more outlying settlements, often caused by misunderstanding than any desire to attack settlers outright. As a people, the nomadic Tusken Raiders lived in tents that could be moved at a moment's notice. Each tribe maintained its own caravan, moving about to locate food sources and to avoid krayt dragons. Tribal leaders were the only individuals who knew the entire tribe, allowing them arrange marriages and ensure the vitality of the tribe. Because hunting and defense were of paramount importance, young Tusken Raiders went through rigorous training, and had to pass a coming-of-age test before being recognized as an adult.

Source Abbreviations Listing - E4N, SWSB, TME, ISU, VD2, SWDB, SOT, KOTOR, NEGA, RF3