locale not set, how do I set it?

["Jerry" <riechert@qwest.net>]

I have 3.4 installed to the hard disk. Trying to install software with 
KPackage. It succesfully get the packages but when it tries to install I 
get the following:
perl: warning: Setting locale failed
perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
   LANGUAGE = (unset),
   LC_ALL = "en_US",
   LANG="C"
 are supported and installed on your system.
perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_MESSAGES to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory
and then a bunch of dpkg-deb: subprocess tar killed by signal messages.

How/where do I set the locale?

--
Jerry