And the http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Goblins says:
Stealing a goblin tribe's totem and hiding or placing it somewhere will not start a war though, due to distance restrictions built into the game.
That's just as much proof, so quotes don't do much good in this situation.
The "totem war" feature actually
was implemented, just not very well (the UOP corrected some things, but I'm not sure how thoroughly), and a lot of people have had trouble getting it work as intended. All you can do is try out your idea and see what happens, since you've had success with getting goblins to follow their totem. All I know for sure is that it's the War Chief, and possibly the Shaman, that will follow the totem, while the other goblins follow their War Chief.