diff --git a/src/backend/distributed/commands/create_distributed_table.c b/src/backend/distributed/commands/create_distributed_table.c
index 1e3d1da9f..6aee796fc 100644
--- a/src/backend/distributed/commands/create_distributed_table.c
+++ b/src/backend/distributed/commands/create_distributed_table.c
@@ -1284,7 +1284,7 @@ TupleDescColumnNameList(TupleDesc tupleDescriptor)
 
 	for (columnIndex = 0; columnIndex < tupleDescriptor->natts; columnIndex++)
 	{
-		Form_pg_attribute currentColumn = tupleDescriptor->attrs[columnIndex];
+		Form_pg_attribute currentColumn = TupleDescAttr(tupleDescriptor, columnIndex);
 		char *columnName = NameStr(currentColumn->attname);
 
 		if (currentColumn->attisdropped)
@@ -1311,7 +1311,7 @@ RelationUsesIdentityColumns(TupleDesc relationDesc)
 
 	for (attributeIndex = 0; attributeIndex < relationDesc->natts; attributeIndex++)
 	{
-		Form_pg_attribute attributeForm = relationDesc->attrs[attributeIndex];
+		Form_pg_attribute attributeForm = TupleDescAttr(relationDesc, attributeIndex);
 
 		if (attributeForm->attidentity != '\0')
 		{
diff --git a/src/backend/distributed/commands/multi_copy.c b/src/backend/distributed/commands/multi_copy.c
index 899d9e34a..1853b3875 100644
--- a/src/backend/distributed/commands/multi_copy.c
+++ b/src/backend/distributed/commands/multi_copy.c
@@ -334,7 +334,7 @@ CopyToExistingShards(CopyStmt *copyStatement, char *completionTag)
 	/* build the list of column names for remote COPY statements */
 	for (columnIndex = 0; columnIndex < columnCount; columnIndex++)
 	{
-		Form_pg_attribute currentColumn = tupleDescriptor->attrs[columnIndex];
+		Form_pg_attribute currentColumn = TupleDescAttr(tupleDescriptor, columnIndex);
 		char *columnName = NameStr(currentColumn->attname);
 
 		if (currentColumn->attisdropped)
@@ -892,7 +892,7 @@ CanUseBinaryCopyFormat(TupleDesc tupleDescription)
 
 	for (columnIndex = 0; columnIndex < totalColumnCount; columnIndex++)
 	{
-		Form_pg_attribute currentColumn = tupleDescription->attrs[columnIndex];
+		Form_pg_attribute currentColumn = TupleDescAttr(tupleDescription, columnIndex);
 		Oid typeId = InvalidOid;
 		char typeCategory = '\0';
 		bool typePreferred = false;
@@ -1231,7 +1231,7 @@ ColumnOutputFunctions(TupleDesc rowDescriptor, bool binaryFormat)
 	for (columnIndex = 0; columnIndex < columnCount; columnIndex++)
 	{
 		FmgrInfo *currentOutputFunction = &columnOutputFunctions[columnIndex];
-		Form_pg_attribute currentColumn = rowDescriptor->attrs[columnIndex];
+		Form_pg_attribute currentColumn = TupleDescAttr(rowDescriptor, columnIndex);
 		Oid columnTypeId = currentColumn->atttypid;
 		Oid outputFunctionId = InvalidOid;
 		bool typeVariableLength = false;
@@ -1282,7 +1282,7 @@ AppendCopyRowData(Datum *valueArray, bool *isNullArray, TupleDesc rowDescriptor,
 	}
 	for (columnIndex = 0; columnIndex < totalColumnCount; columnIndex++)
 	{
-		Form_pg_attribute currentColumn = rowDescriptor->attrs[columnIndex];
+		Form_pg_attribute currentColumn = TupleDescAttr(rowDescriptor, columnIndex);
 		Datum value = valueArray[columnIndex];
 		bool isNull = isNullArray[columnIndex];
 		bool lastColumn = false;
@@ -1357,7 +1357,7 @@ AvailableColumnCount(TupleDesc tupleDescriptor)
 
 	for (columnIndex = 0; columnIndex < tupleDescriptor->natts; columnIndex++)
 	{
-		Form_pg_attribute currentColumn = tupleDescriptor->attrs[columnIndex];
+		Form_pg_attribute currentColumn = TupleDescAttr(tupleDescriptor, columnIndex);
 
 		if (!currentColumn->attisdropped)
 		{
diff --git a/src/backend/distributed/master/master_citus_tools.c b/src/backend/distributed/master/master_citus_tools.c
index b51bed900..faa4d1865 100644
--- a/src/backend/distributed/master/master_citus_tools.c
+++ b/src/backend/distributed/master/master_citus_tools.c
@@ -108,10 +108,10 @@ master_run_on_worker(PG_FUNCTION_ARGS)
 	 * Check to make sure we have correct tuple descriptor
 	 */
 	if (tupleDescriptor->natts != 4 ||
-		tupleDescriptor->attrs[0]->atttypid != TEXTOID ||
-		tupleDescriptor->attrs[1]->atttypid != INT4OID ||
-		tupleDescriptor->attrs[2]->atttypid != BOOLOID ||
-		tupleDescriptor->attrs[3]->atttypid != TEXTOID)
+		TupleDescAttr(tupleDescriptor, 0)->atttypid != TEXTOID ||
+		TupleDescAttr(tupleDescriptor, 1)->atttypid != INT4OID ||
+		TupleDescAttr(tupleDescriptor, 2)->atttypid != BOOLOID ||
+		TupleDescAttr(tupleDescriptor, 3)->atttypid != TEXTOID)
 	{
 		ereport(ERROR,
 				(errcode(ERRCODE_INVALID_COLUMN_DEFINITION),
diff --git a/src/backend/distributed/metadata/metadata_sync.c b/src/backend/distributed/metadata/metadata_sync.c
index 55c96e596..54dc9c0c1 100644
--- a/src/backend/distributed/metadata/metadata_sync.c
+++ b/src/backend/distributed/metadata/metadata_sync.c
@@ -984,7 +984,7 @@ TypeOfColumn(Oid tableId, int16 columnId)
 {
 	Relation tableRelation = relation_open(tableId, NoLock);
 	TupleDesc tupleDescriptor = RelationGetDescr(tableRelation);
-	Form_pg_attribute attrForm = tupleDescriptor->attrs[columnId - 1];
+	Form_pg_attribute attrForm = TupleDescAttr(tupleDescriptor, columnId - 1);
 	relation_close(tableRelation, NoLock);
 	return attrForm->atttypid;
 }
diff --git a/src/backend/distributed/planner/deparse_shard_query.c b/src/backend/distributed/planner/deparse_shard_query.c
index dc06ff81a..c52913559 100644
--- a/src/backend/distributed/planner/deparse_shard_query.c
+++ b/src/backend/distributed/planner/deparse_shard_query.c
@@ -262,7 +262,8 @@ ConvertRteToSubqueryWithEmptyResult(RangeTblEntry *rte)
 
 	for (columnIndex = 0; columnIndex < columnCount; columnIndex++)
 	{
-		FormData_pg_attribute *attributeForm = tupleDescriptor->attrs[columnIndex];
+		FormData_pg_attribute *attributeForm = TupleDescAttr(tupleDescriptor,
+															 columnIndex);
 		TargetEntry *targetEntry = NULL;
 		StringInfo resname = NULL;
 		Const *constValue = NULL;
diff --git a/src/backend/distributed/utils/citus_ruleutils.c b/src/backend/distributed/utils/citus_ruleutils.c
index 4cd3b7a1a..ee152fd65 100644
--- a/src/backend/distributed/utils/citus_ruleutils.c
+++ b/src/backend/distributed/utils/citus_ruleutils.c
@@ -333,7 +333,7 @@ pg_get_tableschemadef_string(Oid tableRelationId, bool includeSequenceDefaults)
 
 	for (attributeIndex = 0; attributeIndex < tupleDescriptor->natts; attributeIndex++)
 	{
-		Form_pg_attribute attributeForm = tupleDescriptor->attrs[attributeIndex];
+		Form_pg_attribute attributeForm = TupleDescAttr(tupleDescriptor, attributeIndex);
 
 		/*
 		 * We disregard the inherited attributes (i.e., attinhcount > 0) here. The
@@ -545,7 +545,7 @@ pg_get_tablecolumnoptionsdef_string(Oid tableRelationId)
 
 	for (attributeIndex = 0; attributeIndex < tupleDescriptor->natts; attributeIndex++)
 	{
-		Form_pg_attribute attributeForm = tupleDescriptor->attrs[attributeIndex];
+		Form_pg_attribute attributeForm = TupleDescAttr(tupleDescriptor, attributeIndex);
 		char *attributeName = NameStr(attributeForm->attname);
 		char defaultStorageType = get_typstorage(attributeForm->atttypid);