Ultrafast vibrational spectra of the aqueous oxalate ion in the region of its carboxylate asymmetric stretch modes show novel relaxation processes. Two-dimensional infrared vibrational echo spectra and the vibrational dynamics obtained from them along with measurements of the anisotropy decay provide a picture in which the localization of the oxalate vibrational excitation onto the carboxylate groups occurs in ~450 fs. Molecular dynamics simulations are used to characterize the vibrational dynamics in terms of dihedral angle motion between the two carboxylate planes and solvation dynamics. The localization of the oxalate vibrational excitation onto the carboxylates is induced by the fluctuations in the carboxylate vibrational frequencies which are shown by theory and experiment to have a similar correlation time as the anisotropy decay.