GREAT FALLS (AP) -- Advocates are upset that some of the money intended to go toward Indian Education for All has been used by Missoula County Public Schools for teacher and other district employee raises.

But district officials say they're not misusing state appropriations and already offer students strong Indian education programs.

''Missoula has been a leader in Indian Education for All for some time,'' said Missoula Superintendent Jim Clark. The Office of Public Instruction ''looks to our district for resources. It doesn't mean we can't do better.''

He said the district didn't expand its Indian education offerings this year.

Indian Education for All is a law that mandates Montana schools teach all students about its American Indian tribes and reservations. The mandate was written into the Montana Constitution in 1972, but this year is the first that the state has committed substantial money to the directive.

The state infused money into school districts' general funds instead of doling out those Indian Education for All dollars to districts in a separate account, said Denise Juneau, director of OPI's Indian Education Division.

That's how the spending on salaries could occur.

State Rep. Carol Juneau, D-Browning, who chairs the Montana Indian Education Association, says the spending is disappointing.

Clark said the spending on raises is permissible.

''There's an implication here that we were misusing funds that were mandated for something,'' Clark said.

The Legislature did not mandate that the money be spent a certain way. The state did ''label'' the money, he said, but ''it's all general fund money.''

The Missoula district's social studies curriculum already includes information about Native culture, Assistant Superintendent Gail Becker said, and now the high school science curriculum does, too.

Two years ago, Missoula developed a fourth-grade curricula called Entering the Circle Powwow, and OPI is making that material available to the rest of the state.

Districts will report their Indian Education for All plans to OPI this fall. The money for the spending is coded, and at the end of the school year OPI will be able to tell how much was spent on Indian Education for All, Denise Juneau said.