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Ysleta Mission for Christianizing the Tigua Indians

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Ysleta Mission
Ysleta, Texas
Mission Corpus Christi de la Ysleta, the first mission in Texas, was established by Antonio de Otermín and Fray Francisco de Ayeta in 1682 and was maintained by Franciscans for christianizing the Tigua Indians. The Tigua came as refugees and captives with the former Governor of New Mexico, Antonio de Otermín on his retreat to the El Paso area after his unsuccessful attempt to recover New Mexico in the winter of 1681–82 during the Pueblo Revolt. La Misión de la Ysleta del Sur, consecrated in 1682, was built by the Tigua (Tewa, Tiwa) speaking peoples originally from Isleta and Sandia Pueblos in New Mexico. The mission was located east of present day El Paso. The pueblo and mission were dedicated to the Tiguas' patron, St. Anthony of Padua, became the nucleus of a community that has existed for 300 years—the oldest continuously occupied settlement in Texas. Today, Ysleta Mission is on the National Registry of Historic Places and part of the National Historic Trail system of El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro.
From northern New Mexico to West Texas
The Tigua have faced many challenges in the past three hundred years since arriving in what is now West Texas, and Mission Ysleta was become the place of meeting and mixing of cultures. The original mission church at Ysleta del Sur is believed to have been built of mud chinked logs and willow reeds. Later, Tigua labor built a permanent mission from adobe by 1682. Bishop Salpointe, of Tucson, dedicated the

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