GNU Emacs in console mode -- DELETE key misbehavior

[Ignoramus21205 <ignoramus21205@NOSPAM.21205.invalid>]

I use Ubuntu Jaunty Linux. 

My problem is that when I run emacs -nw, my BACKSPACE key somehow is
mapped to C-d and deletes forward. This is NOT what I want -- I want
it to delete backward like regular C-d.

I did run emacs without any custom .emacs file, and still had this
problem. 

When I do describe-key <ENTER> and then his BACKSPACE, I get:

C-d runs the command delete-char
  which is an interactive built-in function in `C source code'.
It is bound to C-d, <deletechar>.
(delete-char N &optional KILLFLAG)

I did note that if I say in command line:

stty erase C-v BACKSPACE

then BACKSPACE works as I want, but I would like to see if I can do it
in emacs only.

i