help: setting alias breaks color coding console output

Need help please:

I set an alias (alias ls="ls -lah in my account's .bashrc file. and after a log off, log on, when I type ls, the alias is in effect, but now file system output is no longer color coded.

I tried --color=auto and when I pass that argument right after alias, it renders the alias nonfunctional after log off log on. ls is set back to normal. I put in the argument at the end and alias works with color coding not working again.

I seem to have lost color coding different file types? Any idea on how to fix this? Thanks.