the Big Island attacked Oahu, a decisive battle would be fought in Kipapa Gulch, which runs along the southeast side of Mililani. This bloody battle would result in an Oahu victory, but local legends still abound about the spirits of the warriors in the gulch. In 1850, King Kamehameha III granted the Waipi‘o Ahupua‘a, which included Mililani, to John Papa I‘i, the son of a Kona chief who adored exploring the Mililani lands during his childhood. John Papa I‘i named the land “Mililani,” which means “exalted” or “to look skyward.” After his death in 1870, the area was put into a trust and then leased or sold. Castle & Cooke obtained most of the land from the trust, first transforming it into flourishing pineapple and sugar plantations. Workers from around the world would settle into small plantation villages in the Mililani Town area, but as the economy changed, the plantations began to close a century after Mililani Town & Wahiawa 258 SACRED HAWAIIAN SITE TO AGRICULTURAL TOWN The local Native Hawaiian chiefs fought battles to control the precious lands of Mililani and Wahiawa, which had fertile soil, a cool climate, and sacred sites, like the Birthing Stones, where ali‘i, or ruling, women delivered their children. The armies of Oahu also trained for war in the Mililani and Wahiawa mountains. And in 1410, when the chiefs of Maui and Kukaniloko Birthing Stones are located north of Wahiawa
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