Changes are being introduced to a program designed to help First Nations regain more control over their land.

The First Nations Land Management Regime allows bands to manage their land, resources and environment under their own land code.

It effectively eliminates 34 clauses found in the Indian Act.

Dean Bear works for the Muskoday First Nation, one of four bands in Saskatchewan that falls under the program.

He says the initiative gives First Nations the freedom to do a lot of things.

Bear says Muskoday entered into the program’s initial framework back in 1996 and wrote its own land code in 2000.

He says that has effectively replaced about a third of the Indian Act that used to govern those areas.