Overriding local encoding defaults

I am trying to create a Pg 8.4 cluster with UTF8 encoding for JDBC
access. But initdb insists that because my local console is en_US, it
cannot do that. We're talking about setting up a server here. Why should
it even care what the local console settings are? initdb and pg_ctl are
the only commands that will ever be run through that console.

Is there any way to force initdb to ignore the local environment and use
UTF8?

If not, how do I modify the local console to match the UTF8 requirement?
This is on Slackware/64 13.1.0.

Thank you,

Bob McConnell