The models in this work are Hunting Son and Bawling Deer. Hunting Son is wearing a Sioux War Shirt that was supposedly picked up on Custer's battle field the next day by Custer's head Crow Scout. Bawling Deer is a Taos War Chief. The decorated elk hide robe behind Hunting Son was given to Sharp by Chief Flat Iron.

There are no known exhibition records of a painting titled War Talk. In 1924, a painting titled Bawling Deer and Hunting Son was presented at the Traxel Art Galleries in Cincinnati. It appeared again at the same venue with the names reversed in 1925. This work may be War Talk.