Today Nantucket is thought of as a whaling port turned summer resort. But the island's present-day reputation does not do justice to its past. Once referred to as "an island full of Indians," Nantucket was historically one of the most densely populated Native American places in New England. Without the island's large Indian population (estimated at 3,000 in 1659), English Nantucketers would never have had the manpower to launch the fishery that would eventually make the island the whaling capital of the world.