Complex sentence: He earned the friendship of the natives by swapping furs for guns, allowing the group to defend themselves on an equal footing against their enemies, and was nicknamed the "trafficker of iron", or "iron legs".
Split into simpler sentences: He earned the friendship of the natives by swapping furs for guns, allowing the group to defend themselves on an equal footing against their enemies. He was nicknamed the "trafficker of iron", or "iron legs".