Editing El Paso, Texas (section)

===== Mission Valley =====
{{main|Mission Valley (El Paso)}}

Formerly known as the lower valley, it includes part of Eastside and all lower valley districts. It is the third-largest area of the city, behind east El Paso and central El Paso. Hawkins Road and Interstate 10 border the Mission Valley. This location is considered the oldest area of El Paso, dating back to the late 16th century when present-day Texas was under the rule of [[New Spain]].
[[File:YsletaMission.JPG|thumb|right|[[Ysleta Mission]]]]
In 1680, the Isleta Pueblo tribe revolted against the Spaniards who were pushed south to what is now El Paso. Some Spaniards and tribe members settled here permanently. Soon afterward, three Spanish missions were built; they remain standing, currently functioning as churches: [[Ysleta Mission]]-1682 (La Misión de Corpus Christi y de San Antonio de la Ysleta del Sur/Our Lady of Mt. Carmel), [[Socorro Mission]]-1759 (Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción del Socorro)-1759, and [[San Elizario Chapel]] (Capilla de San Elcear)-1789.

On April 30, 1598, the northward-bound Spanish conquistadors crossed large sand dunes about 27 miles south of present-day downtown El Paso. The expeditionaries and their horses reportedly ran toward the river, and two horses drank themselves to death. [[Don Juan de Oñate]], a New Spain-born conquistador of Spanish parents, was an expedition leader who ordered a big feast north of the Río Grande in what is now San Elizario. This was the first documented and true Thanksgiving in North America.{{Citation needed|date=February 2021}} Oñate declared'' [[la Toma]]'' (taking possession), claiming all territory north of the Río Grande for King [[Philip II of Spain]].

[[Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo]] (related to the insurgent Isleta Pueblo Tribe) is also located in this valley. The Tigua is one of three Indian tribes in Texas whose sovereignty is recognized by the United States government. Ysleta is spelled with a "Y" because 19th-century script did not differentiate between a capital "Y" and a capital "I".

Some people in this area and its twin city across the river, Ciudad Juárez, are direct descendants of the Spaniards.