Samuel Rheen (ca 1615 - 1680) was a Swedish priest, known for the work En kortt Relation om Lapparnes Lefwarne och Sedher, wijdskiepellsser, sampt i många Stycken Grofwe wildfarellsser [''A brief treatise of the life and culture of the Sami, and their superstitions''] (1671), being one of the earliest descriptions of Sami mythology and Sami noaidi.[1] [2] [3]
He grew up in Böle in Piteå and worked as a minister in Jokkmokk 1664/6-1671 and then in Råneå in Luleå until 1680.
His treatise was commissioned by the government as a part of a larger work describing the life and faith of the Sami. Together with other, similar "clergy correspondences", it served as a source for Johannes Schefferus and his book Lapponia in 1673. His treatise contained a drawing of a sami drum, with explanations of the symbols on the membrane.[4] Rheen was also one of the sources to professor K.B. Wiklund's assumption that Swedish reindeer herding Sami had used Norwegian islands during summer.[5]