Mar. 2007. First Peoples Worldwide founder Rebecca Adamson was instrumental in the creation of the Office for the Coordination of Indigenous Peoples Issues. Adamson met with staff for Sen. Patrick Leahy to initiate a process that created the office. In 2005, Leahy, D-VT, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, with the approval of then-chairman Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-KY, included language for the office in a Department of State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Appropriations bill for fiscal year 2006 that created the office.