In 1830 , Congress passed the Indian Removal Act , which authorized the president to negotiate treaties that exchanged Native American tribal lands in the eastern states for lands west of the Mississippi River . Its goal was primarily to remove Native Americans , including the Five Civilized Tribes , from the American Southeast ; they occupied land that settlers wanted . Jacksonian Democrats demanded the forcible removal of native populations who refused to acknowledge state laws to reservations in the West ; Whigs and religious leaders opposed the move as inhumane . Thousands of deaths resulted from the relocations , as seen in the Cherokee Trail of Tears . The Trail of Tears resulted in approximately 2,000 – 8,000 of the 16,543 relocated Cherokee perishing along the way . Many of the Seminole Indians in Florida refused to move west ; they fought the Army for years in the Seminole Wars
Trail of Tears
Trail of Tears
History of the United States