There is no obligation to buy anything, but the goods made in the longhouse are almost always better and cheaper than similiar items you'll see in the cities. Perhaps the best thing you can take away from a longhouse is not a mask or a matt, however, but a bit of restored faith in humanity. People here live communally, and they seem to have pulled off something akin to a pastoral Marxist ideal. Divorce, for example, is a simple affair. Children stay with the mother, always.
Kids are another remarkable aspect of longhouse life.
They are amazingly contained and well-behaved, a quality that some suggest comes from having a large and inclusive group of adults always around. It would be madness.