"People" is a generic term for more than one person.
"Persons" denotes a singular distinct grouping of people. Ie, Native American persons.
Are you sure about that? Cause it sounds like you've never spoken to a native English speaker about the terms here.
A group of persons with a commonality are a people. The individuals are persons within a group. You can say "a group of people", but that's different (like a sheep vs. a flock of sheep and also a distraction here). The group is a people. People is not a generic term for multiple persons, it's implicitly a group with some commonality. Nobody says "the American persons", it's "the American people". The "various peoples of North America" would refer to a plurality of various and distinct groups of persons.
Why?