The Karuk people (Karok: káruk va'áraaras) are an indigenous people of California, and the Karuk Tribe is one of the largest tribes in California. Karuks are also enrolled in two other federally recognized tribes, the Cher-Ae Heights Indian Community of the Trinidad Rancheria and the Quartz Valley Indian Community.

Happy Camp, California, is located in the heart of the Karuk Tribe's ancestral territory, which extends along the Klamath River from Bluff Creek (near the community of Orleans in Humboldt County) through Siskiyou County and into Southern Oregon.

The name káruk, also spelled "Karok," means "upriver", or "upstream", whereas the word yúruk means "downriver". Thus, the term káruk va’áraaras refers to Karuk people, literally meaning "upriver people", whereas the exonym of the Yurok people in English is derived from Karuk language term yúrukvâaras, meaning "downriver people".

Historically, káruk va’áraaras referred to any people from upriver of a reference point or person speaking. Traditionally, Karuk people referred to themselves as ithivthanéen’aachip va’áraaras, meaning "middle of the world people".

Karuk people are called Chum-ne in the neighboring Tolowa language.

The Karuk people speak the Karuk language, a language isolate sometimes grouped into the proposed family of Hokan languages. The tribe has an active language revitalization program.

Estimates for the population sizes of most Native groups before European arrival in California have varied substantially. Alfred L. Kroeber proposed a population for the Karuk of 1,500 in 1770. Sherburne F. Cook initially estimated it as 2,000, later raising this figure to 2,700. In 1910, Kroeber reported the surviving population of the Karuk as 800.

According to the 2010 census, there were 6,115 Karuk individuals.