[163] The 1835 Treaty of New Echota signed by government officials and representatives of the Cherokee tribe had established terms under which the Cherokees ceded their territory in the southeast and agreed to move west to Oklahoma. In 1838, Van Buren directed General Winfield Scott to forcibly move all those who had not yet complied with the treaty.[164]
The Cherokees were herded violently into internment camps where they were kept for the summer of 1838. The actual transportation west was delayed by intense heat and drought, but in the fall, the Cherokee reluctantly agreed to transport themselves west.[165][166] Some 20,000 people were relocated against their will during the Cherokee removal, part of the Trail of Tears.[167] Notably, Ralph Waldo Emerson, who would go on to become America's foremost man of letters, wrote Van Buren a letter protesting his treatment of the Cherokee.[168]

A United States Marine Corps boat expedition searching the Everglades during the Second Seminole War
The administration also contended with the Seminole Indians, who engaged the army in a prolonged conflict known as the Second Seminole War.