[1] After the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893, Lincoln Loy McCandless acquired two hundred acres of land, including the Waiāhole and Waikāne valleys.
[2] When it was completed in 1917, it siphoned water from Oahu's rainy windward side to the dry leeward plains, where many sugar plantations were.
This limited kalo cultivation by Native Hawaiians and farming by other ethnic groups living in the valleys.
After the protest, the Hawaii Housing Authority bought 600 acres of land from Marks and leased them to the farmers living in the valley.
[4] The struggle for the land and its usage continued in the courts as kalo farmers in the valley sued for rights to the water that was being diverted away by the Waiāhole Ditch, culminating in 2000 when the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that the water should remain in the valley.