I always wondered - what I should do with the tons (and I mean about 30 hours playtime - to get to basketry lvl 94) of grass-string.
Paying for upkeeping the totem is a very good idea!
If possible - a "resizing" feature would be nice. So the size of the protected region depends on the amount of regular payments - a very active group could control more land than a large but inactive tribe.

And finding a suitable and useful purpose for the crafting-grind-produce would also be great