John ‘Running Deer’ Eleazer Of The Shinnecock Nation Dies September 14

John Albert “Running Deer” Eleazer of The Shinnecock Nation died on September 14 at Hackensack Meridian Health Raritan Bay Medical Center in Old Bridge, New Jersey. He was 89, and just three weeks shy of his 90th birthday.

He was born October 7, 1931, in Manhattan. He was the middle of five children born to Venus (née Bell) and Ralph Howard Eleazer Sr.

Mr. Eleazer was raised on the Shinnecock Territory, where he attended the Old Schoolhouse. He graduated from Southampton High School, where he ran cross country track with his brother Ralph Eleazer Jr. and Reginald Gardner Sr. Upon graduation, he entered into the U.S. Air Force on July 4, 1951, and was immediately deployed for three tours of active duty in the Korean War. He served in the 326th Bomb Squadron as a radar fire-control gunner on B-36 Heavy Bombers. Upon his return, Mr. Eleazer completed four years of inactive duty and was honorably discharged in 1961 with medals for Good Conduct and National Defense Service and an Outstanding Unit Award.

Mr. Eleazer went on to attend night classes in advanced electronic technology at RCA Institute, which led to a 40-year career in the aerospace industry as an electro-mechanical designer. His projects included the design and packaging for Black Boxes Avionics; the design of space launched computers for the Apollo Command Module, The Lunar Lander, and Lunar Excursion Module; and the launch complexes site for Cape Kennedy Air Force Station (also known as Cape Canaveral), to name a few. He also worked on civilian projects as a consultant for IBM.

Mr. Eleazer, also skilled at cartography, lectured extensively about U.S. earth changes and Native American spirituality. He was featured on NBC’s “Ancient Prophecies,” “Prophecies IV: The Final Visions” and on Long Island Cablevision’s “Insights,” and was written about in numerous local publications in the late 1990s.

A member of the Air Force Auxiliary Civil Air Patrol (CAP) in Sayreville, New Jersey, in the mid-1980s, Mr. Eleazer joined the Composite Air Squadron, where he served as the inaugural Squadron Commander of General Jimmy Stewart CAP for 15 years. He relinquished his command in 2005 and retired after 25 years with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Although retired, in his late 70s, Mr. Eleazer began working toward a new career in physical therapy and sports medicine. Having practiced reflexology, shiatsu massage and reiki healing for over 20 years, in 2010 he attended The Therapeutic Massage and Training Center in Westfield, New Jersey, where he studied Quantum Touch and earned over 100 hours toward his graduation.

However, one of Mr. Eleazer’s biggest passions was drag racing. Having learned mechanics from his younger brother Ralph Eleazer Jr., he rebuilt the engine of his 1960 Pontiac Catalina and began racing in Old Bridge Township and Englishtown, New Jersey, in the late 1960s. His regular weekend tour, which started in New York National Speedway on Long Island and ended at the Dover Drag Strip in Wingdale, New York, with stops at strips in Westhampton and Albany, earned his Catalina the nickname Road Runner.

On August 14, 1972, Mr. Eleazer and his Road Runner set the United Hot Rod Association class record with a 13.40 on the National Speedway strip. Mr. Eleazer later sold the Catalina to a collector who displays it at national car shows as the first Pontiac to ever pull off such a feat. Mr. Eleazer was recently reunited with the Road Runner to help host its display at the Pontiac-Oakland Club International’s 49th annual convention at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut in July 2021. Upon his return, he was proud to report that a fan approached to ask for a photo to commemorate the day she seen him race in 1972.

A resident of Old Bridge, New Jersey, for the majority of his life, Mr. Eleazer served three years as the New Jersey commissioner on American Indian Affairs. He was also a member of the American Indian Heritage Committee and a 30-year board member of the New Jersey American Indian Center. He helped to found the Lenapehoking Festival and Pow Wow at Sandy Hook, New Jersey, which became fondly known as “John’s Powwow,” to powwow goers from Long Island and New England tribes.

Mr. Eleazer was a regular on the Northeast powwow trail. Not only did he serve as the emcee at Narragansett’s annual August Meeting Pow Wow for over 25 years, but he was the first head dancer alongside the late Elizabeth “Chee Chee” (née Bess) Haile at Shinnecock’s inaugural pow wow in 1946. Each year, the Shinnecock’s pow wow emcee would declare John “Running Deer” Eleazer as having danced every Shinnecock grand entry (with the exception of his four-year deployment in Korea).

An avid pow wow vendor, Mr. Eleazer’s Shinnecock grand entry attendance would have continued were it not for the pow wow’s cancellation due to the COVID pandemic; and his sudden health decline, which forced him into hospice during Shinnecock’s 75th pow wow this year.

Mr. Eleazer was predeceased by three sisters and brothers-in-law, Alyce (née Eleazer) and Robert Hunter, Wanda (née Eleazer) and Gilmore Lacy, Genevieve (née Elazer) and Gary Carle Sr.; a brother and sister-in-law Ralph Eleazer Jr. and his wife Flora; a niece and nephew-in-law, Eleanor and Lubin “Michael” Hunter; four nephews, Glenn Hunter, Gerald Quinn, Ronald Quinn and Michael Arrindell; and most recently, a niece, Geraldine Bullock.

Lovingly known to family as “Uncle Johnny,” Mr. Eleazer is survived by five nieces, Lynda Hunter, Donna Quinn-Eleazer and Ronald Eleazer Sr., Janett Hunter, Sandra Lacy and William I. Bess Jr., and Sharon (née Lacy) and Robert Sylvester; eight nephews, Jeffrey Hunter, Herman Quinn, Clay Carle, Grant Carle, Gary Carle Jr., Ralph and Sheree Hunter, Michael and Christine Lacy, and Keith and Wendy Arrindell; a nephew-in-law, John Bullock; and many great-nieces and great-nephews, great-great-nieces and great-great-nephews and great-great-great-nieces and great-great-great-nephews.

In addition, he leaves behind treasured friends, Walter Blonski, Cyrus Hardy, Sam Williamson and James Tinsley.