Editing ʻEwa Beach, Hawaii (section)

== History and etymology ==
The word ''{{okina}}ewa'' means "stray" in Hawaiian.<ref>{{cite book |title=Hawaiian Dictionary: Hawaiian-English, English-Hawaiian |last1=Pukui |first1=Mary Kawena |last2=Elbert |first2=Samuel H. |author-link2=Samuel Hoyt Elbert|publisher=University of Hawaii Press |page=42 |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-8248-0703-0 }}</ref> The name comes from the myth that the gods [[Kāne]] and [[Kanaloa]] threw a stone to determine the boundaries, but it was lost and later found at Pili o Kahe.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wehewehe.org/gsdl2.5/cgi-bin/hdict?e=q-0hdict--00-0-0--010---4----den--0-000lp0--1haw-Zz-1---Zz-1-home-Ewa--00031-0000escapewin-00&a=q&d=D46876|title=Place Names of Hawaiʻi: ʻEwa}}</ref> Hawaiian settlement on the {{okina}}Ewa Plain dates back at least to the 12th century C.E., at which time [[kanaka maoli]] expanded the main channel of Pu{{okina}}uloa ([[Pearl Harbor]]) before creating fishponds and terraced agricultural fields in the surrounding area. Scholars have recognized {{okina}}Ewa's ancient fishponds as exemplary evidence of Native Hawaiian ingenuity.<ref>Jan Becket and Joseph Singer, eds., ''Pana O{{okina}}ahu: Sacred Stones, Sacred Land'' (Honolulu: the University of Hawai{{okina}}i Press, 1999), 37.</ref>

Before Ewa Beach became a town, it was first a huge plantation farm. With {{convert|11000|acres}} of land sublet by [[Benjamin Franklin Dillingham|Benjamin Dillingham]], W.R. Lowrie became the first plantation manager in 1891, when Hawaiʻi was under the rule of Queen [[Liliuokalani|Liliʻuokalani]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www2.hawaii.edu/~speccoll/p_ewa.html |title=Ewa Plantation Company |date=October 10, 2012 |website=University of Hawaii at Manoa |access-date=September 14, 2019 |publisher=Hawaii Sugar Planters' Association }}</ref>  Ewa Beach is significant for its association with Ewa Sugar Plantation. Throughout the twentieth century, it played a very influential role in Hawaii's culture, economy, and politics.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://historichawaii.org/2014/02/28/91-1209-alanui-mauka-streetewa-sugar-plantation-villages/|title=91-1209 Alanui Mauka Street/Ewa Sugar Plantation Villages|last=HistoricHawaii|date=February 28, 2014|website=Historic Hawaii Foundation|access-date=November 17, 2016 }}</ref>

Along much of the South Shore of [[Oahu|O{{okina}}ahu]], {{okina}}Ewa is a reference to the direction of {{okina}}Ewa Beach, roughly westwards along the shore. Related terms are "mauka" (towards the mountains, roughly northwards), "makai" (towards the ocean, roughly south), and Diamond Head or Koko Head, roughly eastwards along the shore.