The government and Andrew Jackson relocated thousands of American Indians out of western territories in order to seize their lands, since gold had been discovered for instance, and 'white settlers' wanted to establish themselves in those lands.
Although the conflicts between European Americans and Native Americans had been taking place since the 17th century, the forced migration took place in the 19th century. Native Americans were ordained to leave their ancestral homelands in the eastern United States to lands west of the Mississippi River.
