 The earliest written use of the name, spelled "Rontaks", was in 1729 by the French missionary Joseph-François Lafitau.He explained that the word was used by the Iroquoians as a derogatory term for groups of Algonquians who did not practice agriculture and therefore sometimes had to eat tree bark to survive harsh winters.As the Mohawks had no written language at the time, Europeans used various phonetic spellings of the word, including "Achkokx", "Rondaxe", and "Adirondax."