Perhaps the best known incident of Alola's Age of Discovery was the so-called "Battle of the Sandslash", in which a squadron of explorer-pirates from Kanto, wearing armor made from Sandslash, seized the chief of Ula'ula Island's capitol and repelled an attack from ten times as many soldiers, each equipped with a sword made from Alolan Sandslash spikes or claws.
Remarkable as the clash of yellow and brown on blue and white must have been, pokemon played at most an auxiliary role in this battle, and living Sandslash do not appear on either side in the earliest accounts of the fight. It is only later generations, accustomed to letting their pokemon do most (if not all) of the battling, who have portrayed it as a battle between Sandslash themselves – first in artwork, where it was considered as a sacred fight for independence, and today on the broadcast of live pokemon battles, where any match between Sandslash and Alolan Sandslash (even if the competitors are of reverse citizenship) is peppered with references to that time in history.
Pre-contact Alola had only the barest semblance of an armor tradition, but the very invaders who threatened the region's independence had, by doing so, introduced them to the concept and demonstrated its power. Moreover, the Alolan Sandslash is if anything superior to its Kanto counterpart as an armor pokemon: its tough hide has been reinforced by metal, and its cool texture allows this armor to be worn in warm climates for prolonged periods of time. Indeed, no sooner did Kanto's shoguns recognize the region's independence than they dispatched another expedition – one loaded with valuable trade goods, and seeking only Sandslash hides in return.